Apple Picking
by stellaasuna28
Summary: AU. Kagome finds a job at a local school with an icy demon Lord for a principal and a gruff hanyou for a gym teacher.
1. Chapter 1

Notes: AU setting. Kagome is a teacher in a small-town elementary school. She's never been to the feudal era, but has latent spiritual powers inherited from her female ancestors, some of whom were mikos. In this world demons exist and live secretly from humans through the use of special charms that disguise their demonic appearances.

 **Chapter One: Running Late**

"Kagome! You're going to be late!" Rin called up the stairs. Kagome appeared at the top of the landing in her pajamas, and squawked something around her foaming toothbrush before diving back in. She tumbled down the stairs while trying to fasten a skirt around her pajama bottoms. Rin helped her out of her grubby T-shirt and into a crisp white shirt from the clean-laundry pile in the den that never seemed to make it upstairs to the dresser.

"Thanks! Sorry!" Kagome said breathlessly, searching in the couch cushions for her shoes. When Rin saw what she was doing she tsked and fetched a pair of pumps from the hall closet.

"Wear these, Kagome," she said with a touch of asperity.

"What? What's wrong with my shoes?" Kagome asked, displaying herself a little indecently as she struggled into a too-tight pair of combat boots.

"You can't wear combat boots with a pencil skirt to your first day of work," Rin explained.

"I like my shoes. They're cute." Kagome pouted a little bit, but Rin held firm with her roommate, who couldn't always be trusted when it came to wardrobe decisions.

"Wear mine today. Your kids are only ten; you don't want to scare them."

"Awww, they'll be fine…" Kagome said, but she pulled the boots off and reached for the pumps anyway.

"And button one more button of that shirt." Rin added, not being able to help herself.

"Oh _come on_!" Kagome exclaimed. "This is _way_ more tame than most of my outfits!"

"Kagome, you're not an artist anymore!" Rin declared, but then hastily went on at the hurt look on her roommate's face, "Ok, you're not ONLY an artist anymore. Just listen to me, okay?"

"Fine. Okay." Kagome looked down to button her shirt, "Whoa, you're right!" She quickly fastened two additional buttons.

"Good luck!" Rin chimed as she ushered Kagome out the door of the tiny rented house. She watched fondly as her best friend teetered down the porch steps and onto the gravel front path, unsure of herself in heels. She tossed her college backpack unceremoniously into the passenger seat of her car and hit her head as she got in, swearing loudly.

Rin stood on the porch as Kagome drove away. She'd known her roommate since they were children and played together in the creek down the road from their homes. Kagome had a wandering heart; she'd always lurched from one interest to another. While Rin had patiently studied horticulture in college and kept a small online-based business afloat on her own, Kagome had flitted between three or four different majors before eventually dropping out. She worked at a bookstore, at a bar, and at a paint-it-yourself ceramic shop before starting her own internet business selling her ink drawings in the form of prints, post-cards, and stationery. Rin had hoped the venture would succeed, but Kagome couldn't make enough money to live off of. She ended up going back to school to finish her original major, education. Now she finally had a real job and Rin desperately hoped for her friend that it would go out.

Rin shook her head slowly and turned to go back inside. Kagome was on her own now. She had flowers to deliver.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two: First Day of School**

Kagome always loved the first day of school. She loved the feeling of a backpack full of folders, binders, and crisp white paper. She loved stocking her pencil bag full of freshly sharpened pencils and her favorite kind of fine-tip ink pen. She loved taking notes, drawing doodles in the corners of her papers, and cracking open her new textbooks so she could scan them for interesting illustrations.

Of course, in all of those memories, Kagome had been the student. On this, her first day of school as a teacher, the young woman felt decidedly nervous. She'd spent most of the summer making lesson plans and decorating her classroom (which looked _amazing_ decked out in her ink drawings of plants and animals, thank you very much) but today was the day where the rubber really hit the road. She straightened her blouse, tugged on her too-tight pencil skirt, and shouldered her backpack as she walked through the slowly-moving carpool line into the main entrance of the building.

The school itself, which boasted a plaque emblazoned with the words _est. 1639,_ was certainly the oldest Kagome had ever encountered. It was a selective institution with a carefully guarded vetting process for both students and teachers. Kagome was a little unsure of how she got the job of the first place, but with a near-empty bank account and an absurd number of school loans, she was determined to make a success of her time here.

As she entered, Kagome again was charmed by the classic architecture of the building, with its weathered brick and crisp white accents. Flowerbeds filled with large pink blossoms adorned the walkway up to the main entrance, and window boxes boasted impressive displays of ivy and other creepers. The many sets of windows were all adorned with different curtains on the insides; apparently the administration gave the teachers lots of freedom to decorate in their own style, which had been a great relief to Kagome whose instincts to nest were very strong. She liked to make spaces her own.

Kagome supposed she had gotten the job through Rin, who had done some work with the school's impressive garden and greenhouse. Of course, she _did_ have a degree from a well-respected institution along with excellent recommendations from her professors and supervisors….surely that must have played into the decision as well.

Her interview had felt a little disastrous at the time. The venerable-looking school principal, Mr. Taisho, had asked few questions and maintained long silences. The cheerful assistant principal, Mr. Soryo ("Call me Mr. S!"), had winked at her so many times she wanted to ask him if he had something in his eye. By the end of the interview she had mispronounced the name of everyone present, spilled her water on her sheer blouse, thus making it much _more_ sheer, and let slip that she had initially quit college and worked on a mural at a gay cowboy-themed strip club called _Boots & Saddle _to make ends meet. Luckily she managed to keep the fact that she had tended bar at a place called _The Pink Pussycat_ for over a year under wraps.

 _It wasn't my fault!_ Kagome thought with chagrin, embarrassed at the memory. How was she to know that the principal of the school would be a seven-foot tall _god_ with glossy black hair and alabaster skin? He was _fucking gorgeous._ She had felt like an awkward slob just being near him and couldn't _wait_ to get out of there. She'd been so traumatized by the experience that she'd convinced Rin to drink with her that night, something the more sensible girl rarely did. It had been worth it, though. While in her cups Rin had admitted that Mr. Taisho was the sexiest thing she'd ever seen in a business suit. Apparently she'd met him while working in the garden, "He's got _tattoos,_ " Rin had said, giggling, "all up and down his arms."

"How did you see his _arms?_ " Kagome had asked, aghast.

"He was working in the garden with me. He rolled up his sleeves. Said he loved the smell of earth." Rin said, pretending to swoon. Kagome snorted.

"What a creepy shit." She said, "Good thing I fucked up the interview. At least I don't have to work for him."

She'd gotten the offer the next day. With all of her bad luck, she figured she shouldn't look the gift horse in the mouth and graciously accepted. Now she was beginning her new job, roughly two months after the initial offer, and desperately hoped no one would realize what a hack she really was.

"Ms. Higurashi," A voice rang out behind her, sounding calculated and dry. She stopped and turned to meet Mr. Taisho's slightly golden eyes. He was dressed impeccably in a navy suit that fit _much_ too well. Kagome was again seized by the conviction that she must look like a slob. He was so attractive that power seemed to come off of him in rhythmic waves, like a heartbeat. She could almost feel it inside of her. _I hate talking to pretty people,_ she thought angrily as she met his gaze with a confident smile.

"Good morning Mr. Taisho! So excited to have...it'll be a great week, great day, you know kids coming and all…" She rambled to a stop, backing away slightly, but he looked like he wanted to say something.

"Your blouse," The principal gestured to his own chest as though demonstrating, and Kagome looked down, confused.

 _Ohforgodsfuckingsake._

The two top buttons her roommate had encouraged her to fasten had popped open, revealing the tiger-striped bra underneath. In her stammering haste to apologize and button herself back up, her backpack dropped from her shoulder and hit the polished stone floor with a smack. Coffee began oozing out of an old travel mug she'd forgotten to clean out.

Thankfully, Mr. Taisho had no intention of hanging around to help. By the time Kagome had realized that she was probably flashing panties in her haste to crouch down and wipe up the spill, he was gone. Although it was pretty rude, Kagome was glad he hadn't hung around. For just a few moments she was free to swear under her breath as she located an old sweater stuffed in her backpack and used it to mop up the mess, pumps slipping along the cold floor.

"Holy shit! What the hell you do that for?" A gruff voice sounded behind Kagome. She decided it wasn't even eight o'clock yet and she was already tired of men approaching her from behind.

"I didn't do it on _purpose,_ " She answered angrily, not turning around. "Life happens, coffee spills."

"No, that's not what I...for chrissake….here" said the voice, and a Kagome was immediately blindsided by a wash of red and black, as a man crouched in front of her holding out a towel. He was dressed in a red track jacket and athletic pants. "No reason to ruin your sweater." He continued, still holding out the towel.

Kagome stared at him. He wasn't nearly as good looking as the principal, but there was something about him that made her think of the hugely tall man. For starters, they both had unusually long, should-be-illegal-on-a-man glossy black hair. As she stared, his expression wavered and he looked around nervously. Kagome realized he obviously thought she might be touched in the head so she took the towel quickly with a thank you and began mopping up the mess around her.

"You the new teacher?" The man said, standing up and, like the principal, making no real move to help. Feeling a little irritated now, Kagome sat back on her heels, wiping a sleeve across her forehead and being rewarded with a makeup-smeared shirt.

"Yeah. Kagome Higurashi. I've got fifth graders this year."

"This your first job?" The man asked. Kagome began stuffing things back in her bag, now distinctly miffed.

"No, not my first _job_ job," She said, standing, "Just my first _teaching_ job."

"Ah," The man said, snorting. "You don't look old enough to have had many other _job_ jobs."

"I'm twenty-nine years old!" Kagome huffed. "I'm just in the middle of a...career change."

"A career change?" The man asked, lifting an eyebrow in what Kagome decided was a distinctly insulting way. Children began to come in from the outdoor carpool area, some of them lugging huge backpacks, lunch boxes, and mats for nap time. The lobby began to echo with excited chatter.

"I have to go," Kagome said brusquely, "I've got kids coming. It was lovely to meet you Mr….?" She was _not_ going to let him get away without an introduction, the rude bastard.

"Just call me Inuyasha," He said with a shrug. "I teach gym here."

"Okay. Bye." Kagome said, figuring at least she should be grateful since she was unlikely to need to interact much with the school's gym teacher. She turned and left him in the lobby without a second glance, shamelessly stealing his towel.

Inuyasha watched the new teacher flounce out of the lobby. In her efforts to clean up her mess, her white shirt had come untucked from the back of her skirt. She tripped on her heels as she turned the corner, and what he figured was meant to be a saucy toss of her dark hair was foiled by a badly-placed backpack strap trapping the curling mass to her shoulder. He chuckled lightly to himself. Sesshomaru had hired a complete dork. Miroku had waxed poetic on the beauty and power of their new recruit, but Inuyasha was unimpressed. He'd seen literally hundreds of young mikos walk through those doors and none of them had been worth a second of his time.

Of course his time was quickly running out, he realized with a jolt as he glanced at his watch. He had to be in the gym to set up for his first class, beginning kendo. Hopefully some of the kids this year had some aptitude for it. He would have liked to think that their demon blood would help his students in the coordination department, but unfortunately that was not always the case.

 **Author's Note:** Both the _Boots & Saddle _and _The Pink Pussycat_ are real. I used to walk by them every day on my way to student teaching when I lived in New York. _Boots & Saddle _is indeed a gay strip club, and _The Pink Pussycat_ appeared to be some kind of sex shop. For the purposes of this fanfic I made it into a bar.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three: Teaching is Easy, It's Storing Shit that's Hard**

All in all, Kagome's first day at school turned out to be a success. In spite of her disastrous wardrobe malfunction and the unwelcome presence of a certain gym teacher, Kagome figured she'd fared pretty well by the end of the day. She had met her students, a small class of fifteen ten-year-olds, and they had wasted no time in endearing themselves to her. By the end of the day she had learned their names, which was no mean feat. She tested herself by making a list of their names and memorable attributes:

 _1\. ) Lizzy: shy, ash blonde hair_

 _2.) Craig: classroom helper, loves Ninja Turtles_

 _3.) Annie: dark-haired, freckled, loud, lisp_

 _4.) Kazuto: Japanese (like me!), serious, withdrawn_

 _5.) Angie: showed me how to use the intercom_

 _6.) Dax: toothiest grin in town, energy out the wazoo_

 _7.) Bowman: what are the odds? interested in archery_

 _8.) Chance: fixed my computer to show the morning announcements, tech genius?_

 _9.) James: apparently already running a booming candy-selling enterprise_

 _10.) Cloud: wearing a tie (I figured he'd have hippy parents with that name)_

 _11.) Dorothy: stopped me from killing a spider, took it outside on a sheet of paper_

 _12.) Cecil: no kidding, wore a tweed jacket with elbow patches_

 _13.) Abigail: best friends with Lizzy, drew me seven pictures before lunch_

 _14.) Virginia: loves to run, brought a potent fish stew for lunch_

 _15.) Robert: Annie's twin brother, knows how to make her mad, red sweatpants_

With a satisfied sigh, Kagome leaned back in her hot pink office chair and looked around her room. It was a good sized classroom, especially for only fifteen kids. Her student-teaching classroom had housed twice as many, but that had been at a public school downtown. Apparently the _Western Academy_ , or just 'the academy' for short, had enough funding to keep the student-to-teacher ratio low.

The classroom featured several kid-sized tables with chairs and a wall of cabinets and hooks. Kagome had turned the back corner into a library featuring too few novels at this point (she needed to purchase more as soon as she could) on bookshelves and comfy bean-bag chairs the students had already begun to fight over. The other corner, which housed a sink and soap dispenser, Kagome had designated for arts and crafts. Today they had made name-plates for their tables. They'd been so enthusiastic with the paint that Kagome felt she could forgive the lackluster clean-up job. The front of the room was her teaching space, with a top-of-the-line electronic whiteboard which still mystified her a little bit. Her desk sat in the back of the room in front of a wall of small windows. Her view of the courtyard was lovely but the noise level was unfortunate should she choose to open the windows, which she had opted to do today. The opposite side of the courtyard housed the gymnasium and apparently Mr. Inuyasha enjoyed yelling at his young charges and seemed to encourage them to yell back.

She'd tried not to stare at him when she returned to her room after walking the kids to their dance class, which was her free period of the day, but she couldn't help it. Apparently Mr. Inuyasha was also off at one o'clock and chose to spend the hour stretching and shadow boxing in the courtyard, an activity which Kagome felt was unnecessarily….distracting. What a dweeb.

Kagome looked out that same window now, noticing for the first time how dark it had gotten. She'd stayed late to clean up and prepare for tomorrow. Although she'd carefully planned as much as she could over the summer, several of her students had special needs she'd only been apprised of today, and her lessons had needed some revising to accommodate them.

As she stared out of the courtyard, the door to the gym, now lit brightly against the gathering dark, slammed open with tremendous force. Kagome saw Inuyasha silhouetted in the doorway, carrying stacks of wooden practice swords. She figured he must have had to kick the door open but as he tried to leave one of the swords caught in the door frame and the door swung closed on him again.

The door swung open again as he kicked it. He tried to dash out before it slammed shut but only ended up pinned, swords pointing in all directions. Kagome couldn't help it; she laughed softly. Inuyasha stilled and looked over towards her. Kagome felt a thrill in her stomach. Surely he hadn't heard her laugh from all the way over there?

He disappeared back into the gym and for a moment Kagome thought he had given up trying to take his kendo swords out to what she assumed was a storage shed at the end of the courtyard. She looked down at her list again, and decided perhaps it was time to go home and get some dinner.

The sound of the gym door slamming brought her head back up from where she was packing her backpack. Inuyasha hadn't just refused to give up, apparently he had decided he needed to store _more_ stuff. He was laden with swords, medicine balls, and a few other bulky packages. Kagome thought there might be a jump rope mixed up in there. The door slammed in his face once again, drawing another laugh from Kagome, before he kicked it so soundly that it swung flush against the wall of the gym and stayed. Inuyasha seemed to compose himself, then strutted, _strutted,_ with his load to the storage shed. After he'd packed his load in and locked the door to the shed back, he turned to look in Kagome's direction, who hastily tried to look as if she hadn't been watching (and laughing). Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him crack his knuckles dangerously and stalk back into the gym, slamming the door shut behind him.

Not sure if she felt amused, embarrassed, or irritated (or maybe all three) Kagome finished packing and went home.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four: A Mile Long Indeed**

"Brother."

Inuyasha cringed at Sesshomaru's use of the word. He had dropped the _half_ portion of _half-brother_ when he had asked the hanyou to come work at the Academy years ago. Inuyasha felt it would be churlish to insist that they weren't full brothers after Sesshomaru had accepted him as pack. Not that he was above being churlish; he was really kind of a churlish guy. But with Sesshomaru? It was safer not to comment on the change.

"Yeah. What?" Inuyasha continued sweeping the gym with his push-broom, a chore he insisted on performing himself at the end of every school day. He disliked the presence of janitors and hated feeling as though someone was cleaning up after him.

"How did you find the new students? Anyone with any aptitude?"

"A few. Japanese kid was pretty good."

"Excellent," Sesshomaru sighed and turned to walk away.

"Hey Sess," Inuyasha called out after him, using the nickname he knew his brother despised. Sesshomaru stiffened but turned to look back questioningly.

"Where'd you find that new teacher anyway? Miroku said she was powerful but I don't see it. Is she worth all the secrecy?"

"Her family tree," Sesshomaru calmly explained, "features some of the strongest mikos in recorded history. I myself battled with one of her ancestors."

"You're joking."

"I do not joke, Inuyasha. She could be very powerful. I thought it best to keep her on a tight leash here rather than let her run amok."

Inuyasha chuckled. "She's already running amok," he said, thinking about Kagome's coffee-spilled morning. "That girl is all legs and elbows. Clumsy."

"She is not the most agile woman I've ever met. But that's nothing a little training couldn't fix, should the time come."

Inuyasha sensed a trap, and refused to take the bait. Sesshomaru hesitated only slightly, and then went on. "She could train with you."

"No."

"Are you saying you are not skilled enough to train her?"

"I'm not _suicidal_ enough. The kind of power you say she has mixed with the coordination I've seen? I'd be gone in a pink flash." Inuyasha said flatly.

"I understand. Perhaps I should ask Shippo." Another long pause. Inuyasha's face reddened slightly but he was no idiot. He knew when he was being manipulated, and after several hundred years close proximity with his brother, being manipulated was a fairly frequent occurrence.

"Goodnight brother." Sesshomaru said, turning. Before Inuyasha even looked up he was gone.

"Training?" Rin asked incredulously. "What kind of training?"

"Like, martial arts and stuff!" Kagome said, flopping onto the couch with her backpack still on her back. After a few seconds of hard work to extricate herself (a pretty common problem for one whose wavy curls tended to tangle in any nearby objects) she kicked her shoes off and curled up into a miserable ball on the end of the couch. "I can't _believe_ this is happening," She said, her voice muffled by a pillow featuring prints of Frida Kahlo paintings, "This is sexual harassment."

Rin laughed loudly and got up to get her roommate a drink. Kagome had been working late all week long, only making it home after dark each night. She'd even skipped dinner a few nights, which worried Rin. Kagome had very touchy blood sugar; more than once Rin had forced her friend to eat so she wouldn't pass out. She figured the dark-haired girl could use a stiff drink. It was Friday after all.

"So tell me what happened," Rin called from the kitchen, pulling a bottle of Vodka from the freezer.

"Oh, you know, the usual. I'm a shitty teacher, blah blah blah." Kagome rolled over on the couch and divested herself of her work clothing, which she _hated._ "Thank GOD," She said and she pulled her tights off. "I fucking hate dressing for work. I miss my jeans."

"Kagome, really," Rin said, handing the girl her favorite drink, vodka and grapefruit juice, "You are such a moaner."

"I think I have a right to moan!" Kagome said, drawing a throw blanket around herself as Rin automatically went to the window to close the blinds. Unfortunately, Kagome undressing and/or being undressed in front of open windows happened far too often in their house. "Principal calls me into his office and suggests I might benefit from _exercise?_ From _training?_ What's that even supposed to mean?"

"That he thinks you're fat?" Rin supplied unhelpfully. Kagome flipped her off.

"And the worst part is, I can't say no because I NEED this job!"

"Sure, you could say no." Rin said, settling down on the couch. "Just tell him that's not what he hired you for."

"There's no way I could talk to Mr. Taisho like that. He's terrifying."

"Naw, he's not terrifying. A little intimidating, but I'm sure he's a sensible guy." Rin said. Kagome narrowed her eyes at her friend, who looked a little too flushed.

"You have the hots for him, admit it." Kagome said flatly.

"Freely. I have the hots for him. He's the hottest man I've ever seen." Rin said bravely, but then shrugged. "But whatever. Why would a guy like that be interested in me? I'm short and frequently covered in dirt."

"Oh, don't you remember Rin?" Kagome said devilishly, "He _loves_ the smell of earth."

"Didn't you call him a creepy fuck for saying that?"

"No I called him a creepy shit, which he is."

"Well it doesn't matter. I've finished the landscaping for the garden anyway. I won't be going back there."

"Fifty bucks says he calls you back for some reason. I bet he wants to bone you just as bad. I bet his dick is like a mile long."

"Kagome, SICK!" Rin laughed, launching a pillow at Kagome, who spilled her drink in an effort to avoid it. Kagome snickered as she gathered pieces of ice from the folds of her throw blanket.

"Anyway, I start on Monday. Maybe you can stand up to that icy stare but I can't. At least it's not that gym teacher who's going to teach me. Taisho said the art teacher could do it."

"The gym teacher? Is this the guy you've been complaining about every night?"

"Only because he's a total dick. And every time I see him I seem to be dropping something or ripping a seam in my clothing. Today I caught him looking down my blouse."

"That's because you put your boobs on display. You should charge admission."

"Shut up. It was pervy anyway. He's always showing off in the courtyard. I swear sometimes I think he knows I'm watching."

"Of course he knows you're watching; that's why he's showing off."

"I can't help it. He's got a body like…..too bad every time I talk to him he says something rude to me."

"Men are so stupid."

Kagome silently agreed, then yelped when a piece of ice slipped down her back.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five: Wet Dog Smell**

Monday morning saw Kagome getting up early... _way_ too early...to meet the art teacher in the gym. She fussed some over her dresser. What does one wear to a mandatory martial arts training session with an elementary school art teacher? She eventually settled on yoga pants and a loose tank top. Rin had helped her pack a bag the night before with shower essentials and work clothes so she wouldn't have to rush home to change.

It was still dark out when she laced up her slimmest pair of trail-running shoes and left, hugging her arms against the chill. Autumn was right around the corner.

The gym was dark and empty when she got there, though thankfully open. "Shippo?" Kagome called tentatively. "Is anybody here?"

There was no answer, and for a few moments Kagome wondered if she had gotten her signals crossed. She dropped her bag and paced for a few moments, wondering what to do. How could someone insist she get out of bed at such an ungodly hour and then be _late?_ Deciding she was pissed, Kagome began to job lightly around the gym. At least she could get a workout in before school.

Kagome ran a few laps around the gym, wishing there were obstacles or something to make it interesting. She usually ran on the trails north of town, but lately she hadn't had the time. Eventually she noticed the pegs and knobs attached to one wall of the gym. _A rock wall?_ Sweet! Forgetting her ire, Kagome trotted over and gleefully began scrambling up the makeshift structure.

She hadn't been at it long when a voice called out, "Yo!" Kagome hopped down neatly and turned to see Shippo charging towards her. He appeared to be carrying several donuts, and one protruded from his mouth. He had to stop for a few minutes to bite and swallow before he could speak.

"Sorry!" He said, chewing with gusto. "I brought you a donut to make up for being late." He offered her a stack of four donuts. Kagome took them; they were still warm, and they smelled like apple and cinnamon.

"Oh my god, these look amazing. Where did you get them?" Kagome asked, inhaling the sweet scent.

"Mmmff cffff mms" Shippo said around another mouthful. He swallowed with a gulp and flashed her a toothy grin. "Ready to start?"

"Sure. I'll just...eat these after." Kagome said, thinking that four donuts before kendo training might be a bad idea. She balanced the stack on top of her bag and turned back to Shippo, who was still grinning at her like mad.

Kagome and Shippo had taken to each other as soon as they met outside of Shippo's art room, as Kagome was bringing her class in for their afternoon special. She liked him right away; he was sloppy, irreverent, and cheerful. He had rust-colored, thick red hair he kept in a high ponytail, which looked very dashing on him. Like all the males she had met at the academy, he was uncommonly good looking, with none of the iciness that cooled Mr. Taisho's looks and none of the grumpiness that made Inuyasha seem like a Muppet character. He had bright green eyes and always wore a paint covered smock...well, not always. Currently he was dressed in haori and hakama, traditional Japanese clothing. He polished off the last of his donuts and tossed a bulky bag down. Kagome hadn't noticed he was carrying it, but when he opened it, she could see several assortments of weapons.

"Look, Shippo, I'm not really good with that stuff…" She said, uncomfortable. "Hand-eye coordination and all that."

"Sure you are!" Shipp said cheerfully, tossing her a wooden practice sword, longer than the kendo swords she saw the kids using. Kagome fumbled it and it clattered to the polished floor.

"Yikes! No I'm not...sorry."

"No worries!" Said Shippo cheerfully. "Since you're warmed up, we'll start from the beginning."

An hour and a half later, Kagome was emerging from the gym showers, feeling a little self-conscious. First of all, she'd forgotten to pack a hair-dryer and her wet curls were like a crazy halo around her head. When her hair dried she would look like a witch. She cursed her luck for being born into a Japanese family with a strange streak of curly hair. Where did it come from? Everyone else in her family had smooth, perfect tresses. Even worse than the hair dryer, though, was the omission of tights. She had brought a shorter skirt that normal, a mid-thigh swishy skirt that looked phenomenal with her combat boots, but one she wouldn't normally wear without leggings or tights. Her bare legs felt very, very naked.

 _I'm going to be fired,_ she thought to herself as she cautiously crept out of the girls' locker room. A noise in the boys' locker room stopped her, although she didn't know why she would think it out of the ordinary. The shower was running, but hadn't Shippo said he had to dash off without a shower to set up for a new craft today? Kagome stalled for long enough to hear the shower turn off, and then decided she better leave.

Suddenly the door to the locker room swung open and Kagome couldn't help herself; she turned and looked. Inuyasha was standing on the threshold, obviously as surprised to see her as she was to see him. Of course, she knew he might use the gym showers in the morning, but it was his appearance that stopped her in her tracks. His hair was white. White. _White._ And long... wet, tangled around his shoulders as though he'd just shaken himself like a dog. He was wearing red track pants and no shirt. no shirt. no shirt. No Shirt. Kagome's heart seemed to stop. He looked so familiar. He had puppy ears. He was fucking _adorable._ A few moments passed in silence while they stared at each other. Kagome's face turned beet red as she stole a glance at the planes of his abdomen. It was a really, really nice view. Should be illegal kind of nice. Illegal for a _gym_ teacher to look like _that._

Inuyasha inhaled, and then exhaled, long and slow (and sexy), and suddenly the air seemed to shimmer around him. Kagome's eyes stung and watered. She blinked a few times, looking down to clear her head. When she looked back up, Inuyasha was pulling his wet, black hair through the collar of a T-shirt. He looked at her and sort of shrugged, as though he were trying to be nonchalant and hadn't just transformed right in front of her.

"Hey," He said. "It's early."

"Huh?" Kagome said...eloquently.

Inuyasha shifted his feet and put his hands on his hips, furrowing his brow. "Why are you showering in my gym?" A note of antagonism crept into his voice, but it felt forced.

"Why….I was….do you _live_ here?" Kagome asked, feeling stupid. That was _not_ the question she really wanted to ask.

"Keh." Was all the reply she got. Tension hung in the air between them. Kagome couldn't form the question for a second, but when he moved as though to brush past her and leave, she suddenly found it at the tip of her tongue.

"What. The. HELL?" She said, her voice rising. Inuyasha stopped, still trying to play it off.

"What the hell what? You walked in on me taking a shower. So I live here, alright? Don't make such a big deal…."

"What? No! I don't care where you live? What just happened to your _hair?"_

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Your hair changed color. You had puppy ears. Did you have puppy ears? Am I losing my mind?" Kagome felt desperate. Did she imagine it? Why would she ever imagine something so weird?

"Yes."

"What?"

"Yes, you are losing your mind."

"Shut the fuck up."

"OH MY GOD! You're the one asking _me_ questions!" Inuyasha lifted his hands up as though pleading with her. "Please, don't saying anything to Sesshomaru. He'll kill me. I didn't know anyone was here. You're not supposed to know anything yet."

" _Know what? What the hell is going on?"_ Kagome yelled. Inuyasha rubbed his right shoulder with his left hand, looking really uncomfortable.

"This sucks. Just don't say anything to anyone, okay?"

"What exactly am I not saying?"

"Well, what exactly did you see?"

"I don't even know. You looked different. Are you…." Kagome cast around for an appropriate word, "are you a cosplayer or something?"

" _Cosplayer?"_ Now Inuyasha sounded angry. "You think that was a _costume_?"

"I don't know!" Kagome responded, "What was it?"

"Keh, fuck this. You better get out of here; I've got to get the gym ready for kendo."

"Inuyasha, are you some kind of alien?" Kagome asked. "Have I wandered into some kind of teen romance novel? Are you Edward? You're Edward, aren't you?"

"Who the fuck is Edward? My name is Inuyasha. I'm a gym teacher. You just saw me get out of the shower and my hair was wet and you imagined things. Got it?"

Kagome felt so deeply confused. The room started spinning. Her knees felt a little wobbly. The floor was rushing up towards her…

"Kagome? SHIT!"

 _SMACK_

 _THWAP_

After a blinding flash of bright pink light, both Kagome and Inuyasha hit the gymnasium floor, unconscious.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six: Puppy Pile**

Kagome woke up in a tangle with her least favorite person at the school, on the floor of the gym, with no memory of how she had come to be there. For a few moments she stared at the prone figure of Inuyasha, who was splayed face-down over her lap, face nestled comfortably into the inside of her thigh. What had just happened? Why did she feel...sparkly? Charged, like she'd slid sock-clad feet across a rug in order to shock someone? Power seemed to tingle under her skin. It felt really, really good.

Kagome arched her back a little, drawing an elbow back to prop herself up. Her legs were bent at weird angles and it took a few moments to pull them back. She winced, reminded of the one time she'd ever tried to ski as a teenager. The results were pretty similar to this, only also wet and cold.

Inuyasha stirred a little bit, probably due to the movement. He blinked a few times, Kagome could feel his eyelashes fluttering on her thigh. He tried licking his lips, but since his lips were pressed up against her skin….Kagome felt a rush of heat to her center, the pleasurable kind of heat she hadn't felt in the presence of another person in a really long time.

Suddenly Inuyasha sat up and sneezed mightily, then swore long and loudly into the echoing gym. Kagome scrambled to a kind of seated position, tucking her skirt between her legs. Inuyasha's face was reddening as he looked at her, wide-eyed. She stared back at him, but the silence stretched on for longer than she was comfortable with. Just as she was about to say something, she heard a shout from the gym doors. Shippo dashed in, looked terrified.

"Kagome! What happened?" He said, skidding to a halt in front of the pair. "Inuyasha?"

"Bitch tried to fry me." Inuyasha said, which Kagome felt was unnecessarily nasty. Any heat he may or may not have caused between her legs evaporated completely.

"I didn't do anything to you!" She responded indignantly. "You passed out and fell on top of me."

"No, girl. _You_ passed out and when I moved to catch you, you zapped me." Inuyasha said, wearily getting up. "Shit, she almost purified me into oblivion. This is exactly why I told Sesshomaru I didn't want to mess with her."

"Inuyasha," Shippo said, eyes wide with fear, "Shut _up!_ "

"Why should I?" Inuyasha said. "She might as well know now that she's seen me."

"She saw you? Did you forget to use your spell after your shower again?" Shippo accused.

"Doesn't matter now. Every demon in the building is going to have felt that."

"What is going _on_?" Kagome wailed helplessly from the floor. Only Shippo responded, reaching down to help her up. He winced as his hands came into contact with her skin.

"Ow. Careful now." He said, drawing her to her feet. "It looks like we have some explaining to do."

"Kagome," Inuyasha said over his shoulder, "Try to calm down. You're not helping."

"What? I AM calm!" Kagome yelled back at him. Inuyasha turned and grabbed her hands, holding them up to her face.

"Look at what you're doing! Calm _down_ or you'll hurt Shippo."

Kagome didn't respond. She just stared at her hands, which were lit up from within like a soft pink night light.

"It's beautiful," She said softly.

"It's dangerous," Inuyasha corrected. "You just purified my whole half-demon side away. If you don't control it, you could hurt Shippo and every other demon in here."

"Demons?" Kagome said, still staring at her hands. She felt faint again.

"No you don't…" Inuyasha grunted as her weight sagged against him a little more. "Shippo!"

"Put her on the mats!" A voice rang out from the door before Shippo could answer. Inuyasha hauled Kagome to the side of the gym and helped her to sit down on the mats. Kagome looked over, bleary-eyed, to see a harassed-looking Mr. Taisho marching across the gym floor, black hair whipping behind him, free of its usual ponytail.

"What is the meaning of this?" He said curtly as he drew nearer. "Every demon in the building felt that tremor. What did you do to her to elicit such a response?"

"I didn't do anything to her, you son of a bitch!" Inuyasha bit back. "She saw me without my spell. By accident. And apparently it was too much for her. I _told_ you I didn't think this was a good idea!"

"What you _told_ me, brother, was that you didn't think she was powerful, and apparently you are mistaken." The principal spat back.

Kagome's head felt muzzy again. Brother? What was going on. Shippo sat next to her, trying to speak calmly. She registered his voice, but couldn't hear what he was saying. Inuyasha was still arguing with the principal. He was getting angry, and his hair was beginning to shimmer. Kagome felt her eyes burning again. Shippo tapped on her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" He was asking. Kagome nodded, but couldn't open her mouth. "It's okay to be shocked," Shippo went on. "Most people already know something about themselves before they come here, but not all of them do. You see, Lord Sesshomaru has a gift for finding demons and half-demons. Miroku is skilled at finding mikos. That's what you are. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Demons?" Kagome managed.

"Youkai, to be exact." Shippo corrected. "We originated in Japan".

"My family's from Japan." Kagome said dumbly. Shippo nodded kindly, as one might nod to a very elderly person.

"Yes. You are a descendant of a powerful priestess, I'm told."

"No." Kagome said. "No, I'm normal."

"Of course you're not." Shippo said, "Look at your hands, sweetheart. You're special."

"Like you?" Kagome ventured to ask.

"Not exactly. I'm Kitsune." He said. "Fox demon. My power is different from yours."

Kagome nodded, trying to take it all in, but it was all just so ridiculous. Inuyasha was still fighting with his brother about what to tell her, apparently oblivious to the fact that Shippo had just enlightened her. His "spell" seemed to be firmly in place, but the principal's appearance was flickering in and out. _Both demons?_ Kagome's heart began to hammer, and suddenly she felt as though the world were crashing in and she'd never be safe again. Shippo cursed softly next to her and moved away slightly.

"Now, Kagome," He said softly, "Try to calm down...you don't want to…. _guys_ " He called out to Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, who both turned. Inuyasha's eyes widened when he looked at Kagome, who felt like she might be hyperventilating.

"Fuck, Kagome get a hold of yourself!" He said. Kagome held up her hands. They were brighter now, and she could feel sparks under her skin. Fear leapt into her heart, held her like a vise. Shippo jumped back. Kagome started to cry.

"Wh...what's happening to me?" She said, shaking her hands as though she could shake the light off. Panic set in. She began to shake violently. "I'm not...I'm not….I can't…." She said, her tears making hot tracks down her cheeks.

"Shit, shit," Inuyasha said, "Get the hell out of here." He lurched forward but Sesshomaru stopped him.

"No, she'll kill you. We'll have to take her out."

"I'm only half demon you idiot. She already purified me; now get out, and get everyone else out!" Inuyasha wrestled free and grabbed Kagome. Sesshomaru gave Shippo a look and the two of them turned and ran, unnaturally fast, out of the gym.

For a while Kagome heard shouting and the sound of doors slamming, and her panic rose even more. Inuyasha grabbed her shoulders and shook her roughly.

"Calm down girl!" He said into her face.

"You're NOT helping!" She yelled at him. Inuyasha was stunned, and just stared at her, hands still on her shoulders. Kagome, still fighting the panic, leaned forward slightly and he took the hint, wrapping his arms around her and letting her bury her head in the crook of his neck. He reached one arm low enough to scoop her closer to him and she drew her bare legs across his lap.

"It's okay," Inuyasha murmured as he stroked her hair. "It's going to be okay."

"I...don't...want...to...hurt...you," Kagome choked out.

"You can't hurt me," Inuyasha explained, "I'm half-human. You're only dangerous to demons." He eyed her legs, which were still glowing from within like her hands. Even in human form he could sense the enormous, purifying power inside of her. It sparkled and snapped like a firework, like a tongue of flame singeing his skin and making his eyes water. Power rolled off of her in sinuous waves. _What the fuck are you_? He wondered to himself, holding her close.

"Inuyasha, I can't hold it in anymore," Kagome said, shaking violently, "Something's happening…"

"It's alright," Inuyasha said, gambling that the demons in the vicinity had a chance to evacuate. Thank goodness it was still too early for students. "You don't have to hold it in anymore."

Kagome sighed, and relaxed, and for a moment Inuyasha thought it was over. Then her back arched and her head fell back, mouth open in a silent scream. The power, which had been roiling beneath her skin like a glowing pink ocean, erupted from her in a great bubble. It stretched to capacity in a sphere the size of the gym itself, and then after a terrifying moment of silence, it snapped.

Purifying energy showered in pink sparks and flames, stretching like a live creature into every nook and cranny Inuyasha could see. Even his human skin stung as though he'd been shocked.

Then Kagome relaxed, and the pink energy seemed to wither and die, leaving behind only the stretchy, unpleasant feeling that everything in the vicinity had been ruthlessly scrubbed clean of any demonic traits. Kagome's head lobbed over onto his shoulder. She was unconscious again. Inuyasha sat with her for several long minutes, until his shirtless state left him feeling slightly chilled. He listened to the ringing silence.

Kagome slept on, curled against him. He felt muted and dull without his demonic powers, but he could still smell her scent, which now carried a kind of ozone-like smell, like the smell after lightning had struck. She was no ordinary miko. Seeing him in demonic form must have woken her power, and with no training she had no way to control it. She was dangerous. Sesshomaru should have had her put down.

Almost as soon as he thought it, the girl in Inuyasha's arms quivered slightly, and she raised her head to meet his gaze. She was bleary-eyed and crumpled-faced. She looked kind of cute, despite the fact that she had just released enough energy to kill every demon within a hundred yards of this spot.

"Hey." Inuyasha said stupidly.

"Hey." Kagome responded.

"How do you feel?" He asked.

"Like shit. Did I hurt you?"

"No, I'm not hurt. I'm only half demon. You purify me, I still live. You blasted away my demon powers, though."

"Oh my god! Forever?"

"Nah. Just for a while. Don't worry I'll bounce back."

"Did I hurt anyone?"

"I don't think so. They all evacuated."

"Is everyone here a demon?"

"Almost, although most are only part-demon. It's a long story."

"But you'll tell me." It wasn't a question.

"First, let me put on a shirt. Then I'll take you home to rest. Then I'll tell you whatever you need to know." Inuyasha stood up with Kagome in his arms and set her on her feet. She turned pale and clammy, though, and swayed dangerously. He had to settle her back on the mat long enough to retrieve his shirt and jacket from the locker room. When he came back she was asleep again.

Inuyasha dug in his pocket for his cell phone. Time to let Sesshomaru know it might be a good day to cancel school.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Footsie**

Kagome woke up slowly, feeling a cool breeze on her face. The sunlight filtering through her closed eyelids had the sheer golden quality of early autumn. She opened her eyes a crack and saw that someone had cracked the window, and the bright blue sky outside beckoned to her like an old friend. She smiled sleepily. _My favorite time of year,_ she thought to herself. Apple picking, apple cider, Thanksgiving, Christmas….. _wait, why am I in bed?_

Kagome sat up slightly and turned away from her window towards the other side of her room. There she saw Inuyasha propped up against her bedframe, seated on the floor, leaning against the battered hilt of a sword. There was something fuzzy around him, like soft glowing light. Kagome rubbed her eyes with her hands, but it didn't clear the fuzziness. She reached out to brush the light, and as soon as her fingers came into contact with it, Inuyasha yelped and turned to face her.

"Jesus Christ girl!" He said, exhaling slowly, "Warn a guy first before you go probing around his youki!"

"Youki?" Kagome. Suddenly the world seemed to cave in again. She remembered the events of the morning and started to pant again.

This time, Inuyasha was prepared. Before she even started glowing he hopped on the bed and wrapped his arms lightly around her.

"Hey now, hey now, you're okay...try to stay calm…" He rubbed circles on her back with one hand, while the other stroked her cheek, "Look at me, Kagome...just breathe. I'll explain everything but you need to calm down first before you zap me again…."

"What's happening to me?" Kagome said tremulously, trying to get her breathing under control. "What _are_ you?"

"Calm down and I'll tell you."

"I don't want to explode."

Inuyasha chuckled lightly, "I don't want you to explode either, so don't go pink on me." He leaned back slightly and called out, " _Rin?"_

Kagome heard someone clattering up the stairs. The door opened and Rin burst in, looking flushed. Kagome choked out a sob.

"Out." Rin said to Inuyasha, as soon as she saw Kagome's distress.

"I told you I'm not at risk!" Inuyasha snarled, reluctant to release Kagome.

"Go," Kagome said, "I'm fine I just need a minute…"

Inuyasha growled under his breath as he released her into Rin's arms.

"I'll be downstairs," he said, retrieving his sword. He disappeared, his footfalls suspiciously quiet on their notoriously old and rickety staircase. As soon as he was gone Kagome relaxed a little bit, looking at her roommate.

"How much did he tell you?" She asked her friend.

"Apparently your school is not what it seems to be." Rin supplied wryly. "But I already knew that."

"You already knew it was a school for...for demons?" Kagome half-expected Rin to laugh at her and tell her not to be stupid. Rin just pursed her lips.

"I didn't know that _exactly,_ but I knew something was up with the principal when I worked with him on the landscaping, you know? So I Googled him."

Kagome snorted with laughter, relieved for a moment to bring the conversation back to the usual territory. "You googled him because you wanted to bone him." She accused. Rin clasped her hands over her roommates mouth.

"Shut the fuck up Kagome!" She hissed. "Those bastards have _super intense hearing,_ didn't you know that? They're _dog youkai!"_

"What in the hell? _Dogs?_ He told you that?"

"I wouldn't let him in without a proper explanation. They didn't want the cops called about the unconscious girl they were carrying home."

"They? Is...Mr. Taisho here too?"

"He was for a while, but he left when they started to sense you waking up. Apparently you have the power to incinerate them all."

Kagome decided not to acknowledge the last half of this speech. "So you got to spend the day with the man of your dreams, huh?"

"I told you to shut up. Inuyasha's probably listening to everything we say."

Kagome sobered up. "How come I'm not dangerous to him?"

"Seems like," Rin said, settling herself more comfortably on the mattress, "Your man-friend is a hanyou, meaning his mother was human and his father was Inu-youkai."

"I still don't…." Kagome started.

"It means that there's a human half and a demon half of me," Inuyasha interrupted from the landing, making Kagome yelp slightly in surprise. He stepped just through the threshold of the door, still holding a sword. "You can purify the demon part of me, but there's always going to be the human side left over."

"Oh," Kagome, said, blushing. She suddenly felt very nervous in his presence.

"I thought I told you to get out of here," Rin said acerbically.

"Listen, you don't _want_ me to leave, kid. Not all demons are as cuddly as me and my brother, and every demon in the area is probably aware of her presence in this house now."

"Don't call me kid, Mr. Inuyasha. It's not like you can be much older than me."

"Girl, I'm like 800 years old."

"Oh holy fuck," Kagome said, "For God's sake!"

Inuyasha backed up a step, "Don't go pink on me!"

"What is happening to me!" Kagome yelled. She looked down at her hands, expecting to see the glowing from earlier. They looked normal, though, and she felt a little better.

Rin and Inuyasha eyed her for a few more moments before the latter spoke, apparently satisfied that she wasn't going to blow.

"We don't know _exactly_ why you are as powerful as you are," He supplied, "But there is a lot I can tell you now if you'd like to know."

"Let's get drinks," Rin said, as Kagome nodded. "And go downstairs. Not in that order though, since the drinks are downstairs."

Rin leapt up and offered Kagome her hand. The taller girl stood up and groaned, "God," she said, "I feel like I've been run over by a train."

"I'll help you down the stairs," Inuyasha offered his arm, and Kagome took it. She wobbled a little though, so he just grumbled under his breath and swept her up into his arms. Rin bit her tongue trying to stay silent.

Kagome marveled at the renewed sense of Inuyasha's youki buffeting her own power. Her skin began to glow a little bit, and she felt Inuyasha tense up. She held up her hands in kind of a surrender position. "I'm okay," She said, smiling a little. "I think it's just how close you are, but I don't feel bad anymore."

Inuyasha grunted and carried her down the stairs, depositing her in a chair in the kitchen. Rin came in behind him and bustled around in the fridge, coming up with three of Kagome's favorite beer. Inuyasha took a drag and grimaced, then settled himself down at the table across from Kagome. She was still glowing, but seeming to enjoy it more. She put her hand on the table between them, prodding the aura of Youki that emanated from Inuyasha.

The hanyou grunted at the feeling of sparks hitting his youki. He pushed his youki out to meet the swell of pink power emanating from Kagome. She giggled when she felt it. Rin made a gagging sound.

"Stop playing footsie, or whatever the hell you two are doing. Don't you have some explaining to do?" Rin said, grumpy.

"You're just sad that Mr. Taisho isn't here for you to play with." Kagome replied. Rin kicked her shin while Inuyasha chuckled.

"You don't want to tangle with my brother," He told her. "He's a sick son of a bitch."

"I will tangle with whomever I please," Rin said haughtily. "Besides, he's not even human, apparently."

"No, he's not." Inuyasha allowed.

"Is he half and half, like you?" Kagome asked.

"No, he's a full-blooded demon. We have different mothers."

"Oh," Kagome said. "Where's your mother?"

There was a pregnant pause while both Rin and Inuyasha stared at her. Finally, Inuyasha spoke one word into the silence.

"Dead."

"I'm sorry," Kagome said, feeling stupid. "Of course she must be...I didn't know…"

"No, it's not that." Inuyasha said, seeming to read her mind. "She died when I was little."

"Oh."

There was another uncomfortable pause. All three took swigs of their beers. Inuyasha cleared his throat.

"Okay, So Sess has given me permission to let you guys in on our secrets." He began.

"Rin too?" Kagome asked.

"Yeah, apparently she's to be in the loop as well."

"Okay," Rin said, "Spill. We'll try not to freak out."

Inuyasha signed, took a sip of his beer, and began.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight: The Explanation**

"Youkai have existed in the world for as long as humans have. Cultures have different names for them and centuries ago, we wandered more or less freely in many places and interacted with humans. Like I just said, my own father fell for a human princess."

"So you're Japanese demons?" Kagome ventured. "And your mother was human?"

"Yeah. My father met my mother during the warring states era in Japan. Sess and me, Shippo, and a lot of the demons at school have origins in Japan. But we're not the only demons out there. Lots of demons come from different places, and just like humans, we're not exactly sure how the first of us arrived. Youkai, that is, Japanese demons, grow up hearing about how the gods created us first and the humans second, as a way to punish us for our power and longevity. Youkai are long-lived and hard to kill, but not very fertile. We would have gone extinct if we hadn't started mating humans and producing hanyou offspring. Now, many humans have demonic bloodlines. Some of these bloodlines come with special powers or forms, and they can skip generations. Hanyou kids might lose one or both parents before they have time to grow up, because we age so differently than humans do. It's kind of a mess."

Inuyasha rubbed his face again.

"Are you okay?" Kagome asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just hard to remember some of the details," the hanyou grumbled. "At any rate, people got good at killing demons, and like I said we don't exactly reproduce quickly. We went underground, but it looks like there are more and more hanyou being made and orphaned."

"So you started the school." Rin supplied. Inuyasha shrugged.

"Sess actually started it. Not sure when that bastard grew a heart. We weren't exactly on speaking terms for a few, er, centuries. But he knew we needed a place to keep the kids safe and to educate them and all that. He hired Miroku to find folks with spiritual powers to teach. They wouldn't have as much trouble with the rougher kids. Some of them can be pretty dangerous. But over time, there have been fewer and fewer people."

"How did Mr. Taisho know I had spiritual power? _I_ didn't even know."

Inuyasha shrugged, but Rin spoke up guiltily.

" _I_ told him."

There was another long pause while hanyou and human stared at Rin.

" _What?"_ Kagome asked, stunned. "How did you know something like that?"

"Because _I_ have spiritual powers too, Kagome. It's why I was selected to work at the school in the first place. There are protective barriers woven into that landscaping. It keeps the demonic auras of those inside it hidden."

"And you knew about me?"

"Kagome, I know you may not believe this, but you light up like the fourth of July when you get upset. Any person with an ounce of spiritual power can see it."

"How did you….know about your own spiritual power? How come I didn't know about mine?"

Rin sighed. "I don't know Kagome. That's a story for another day."

"Anyway," Inuyasha butted in, slightly perturbed, "Sess asked me to come teach combat skills a few years ago. He's afraid the kids are getting picked off when they leave. Too many demons and hanyou turn up dead these days."

"That's terrible!" Kagome gasped, thinking of her classroom full of kids. Suddenly she put two and two together. "Are you saying my class is...are...demons?"

"Mostly part-demons, different degrees. You've got one half and half, like me. The rest have different levels."

"Who is half and half?"

Inuyasha scratched his chin. "The Japanese kid. Kazuto."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine: Brotherly Love**

"So I'm there as a...line of defense?" Kagome asked incredulously. Inuyasha shrugged and nodded, finishing off his beer.

"Ugh, I don't know how you can drink that," He said, eyeing the empty bottle.

"Well shit, Inuyasha!" Kagome said, "Don't drink it if you don't like it!"

"It's rude to let a lady drink alone." Inuyasha said offhandedly. Kagome's eyes disappeared into her dark brows, and she might have continued to argue if Rin hadn't broken in.

"Alright, alright. Just shut it, both of you. Is that everything Inuyasha?"

"I guess that's about as much as you need to know...now."

"So do I keep teaching...school?" Kagome asked. "I mean, I know they're demons, but they still need to learn, like, math and stuff right?"

"Oh, yeah. It's the only school these kids get so, yeah. Keep going as normal. Although I don't know if Sess'll want you back now."

"WHAT?" Kagome sputtered. Rin put a hand on her shoulder. "Why the hell not?"

"Well, you could throw a tantrum and vaporize everybody in the building!" Inuyasha said, holding his hands up. "Many of the teachers are full demon."

Kagome pondered that, and looked down at her hands. She'd always been a screw up, but she'd never been _this_ much of a screwup.

Inuyasha's demonic senses were only just returning, but his nose twitched anyway at the sorrowful note in Kagome's scent. He didn't like the cloudy dimension in what was otherwise a sharp, bright scent. As a half dog demon, Inuyasha's nose was uncommonly good, so he was used to knowing more than he would rather know about the people he came into daily contact with. But _Kagome's_ scent….he seemed to be able to locate her in a ten mile radius, and when they'd ended up tangled on the floor of the gym he'd gotten such a strong whiff of her arousal that it had made him sneeze, and that was _after_ she'd zapped him. He seemed dialed into her moods. Even now, although he was technically closer to Rin, all he could sense was Kagome, and she was not happy.

He mentally face-palmed himself. Of course she wouldn't want to be told she might be out of a job! He'd watched her at the school. He knew she cared about those little runts in her class. He was just about to attempt some kind of apologetic comment...certainly not an _actual_ apology...when a familiar scent wafted through the haze of sadness. Another scent spiked through the haze and his gaze cut over to Rin just as Sesshomaru entered the kitchen. Rin flushed a little and Inuyasha suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. When his dog-hearing detected a very, very low growl, he turned to look at his brother in amazement. Sesshomaru stood imposingly tall, and his narrowed eyes were trained on Inuyasha's elbow, which was resting on the table near Rin's hand. The canine demand was clear. _Mine. Stay away._ Inuyasha considered provoking his brother for a moment by refusing the silent demand to back away from Kagome's roommate, but he sighed and relented, edging his chair away from her slightly. He looked up at his brother with brows raised as if to say, _happy now?_ Sesshomaru just nodded curtly as though the world was set back to rights. That was when Inuyasha indulged himself in that eye roll and attempted a drag of his beer, only to remember slightly late that it was empty. He tried to disguise his movement as though to make it look like he was getting up to _throw away_ the beer, but when he'd scooted his chair his jeans had gotten tangled in the leg so when he lurched up he brought the chair with him. It clattered to the floor as he cursed, trying to disengage himself.

Inuyasha's colorful display of foul language cut the tension in the room. Kagome laughed and leapt up to help him right the chair and Rin smoothly offered Sesshomaru a drink. Inuyasha mumbled an apology as the young woman helped unwrap the hole in his jeans from the spokes at the bottom of the chair. Of course, he was trying to fix it himself at the time so their hands got tangled together. When they finally resurfaced after bumping heads and apologizing over each other a few times, Kagome grabbed his hands to examine his newly-sprouted claws.

"Oh my god!" She said. "You're turning back into a demon!" She looked up to examine his hair, which seemed infinitesimally lighter. She reached up to pat the area where she imagined his ears would reappear, but he ducked out of her reach.

"Christ, woman, leave me alone!" He said. "I'm not an animal. You can't just...pet me whenever you want."

"As much as I enjoy watching my brother avoid feminine petting, I'm afraid I don't have time to stay," Sesshomaru was saying to Rin, who had stood up politely. "I just came to collect Inuyasha."

Kagome and said hanyou were currently squabbling about her access to the top of his head. She'd managed to cop a few feels. "I think I feel a little something!" She shrieked gleefully, while he fended her off with his beer bottle. Rin and Sesshomaru didn't spare the couple a glance as they bowed politely to each other. Rin took a chance and extended her hand, and Sesshomaru took it gently in his.

"I hope you'll consider visiting again," Rin murmured, not bothering to raise her voice over the ruckus her roommate was making over Inuyasha's "baby ears". She knew the dog-demon could probably hear her heartbeat, not to mention her words.

Sesshomaru leaned forward, mindful of her all-too-human hearing, and whispered softly in her ear, "I look forward to it." He didn't smile as he felt her slight shiver, but when he pulled back his eyes held a predatory gleam. Without another word, he cuffed Inuyasha around the head and dragged him backwards out of the room with a firm grip on the back of his neck.

Inuyasha was shaking and sputtering with rage by the time Sesshomaru released him on the porch.

"What the _FUCK_ is your problem?" he said, straightening his shirt.

"I was no longer amused by your display of….whatever it was...with the miko." Sesshomaru responded coolly as he made his way down the porch stairs towards his black sedan. Inuyasha followed, eyes narrowed.

"Why did you come to get me? You knew I'd be fine in an hour or so."

Sesshomaru said nothing as the two got into the car and buckled in. Sesshomaru started the car. Inuyasha blinked at him.

"You want that Rin girl. You just came by to see her."

"I came by to give you a ride home."

"I could have got home on my own. You want to mate with that girl."

Sesshomaru did not dignify the proposal with an answer. Inuyasha hooted and laughed. "Holy gods! And she's a miko too? You going soft on me? Going to settle down to raise a pack of hanyou?"

"I advise you, brother, to shut the fuck up." Sesshomaru said, with as much dignity as he could muster. Inuyasha did not obey.

"She's cute, I'll give you that. Kinda short, though. I guess that doesn't matter once you've got somebody layin' down-"

Sesshomaru snarled at his brother, who had the good sense to back down. They drove in silence for a few more minutes.

"Inuyasha." Sesshomaru broke the silence.

"What?"

"Wipe that grin off of your face before I relieve you of it."

"Relieve me of my grin?"

"Relieve you of your face."


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Always be Anatomically Correct**

Kagome woke up the next morning feeling a little achy from all of her exertions the day before. She tumbled out of bed and into the shower even as Rin knocked on her door softly to wake her up.

"I'm up!" Kagome called from the bathroom. Rin called something out that Kagome didn't hear. She popped the door open and spoke again.

"Kagome, did you hear me?" She said.

"Yes, yes," Kagome said as she undressed. Rin closed her door back and went back downstairs.

Kagome hopped into the hot shower, savoring the delicious feeling of warm water on her skin. She loved crisp fall mornings, but it was getting more and more chilly every day. For a few moments she just savored the heat and the stream of the shower, then set to work on her hair. Halfway through her lather, though, she realized she had no soap. No matter, Rin had been to the store recently-surely she would have thought to buy soap? Maybe it was downstairs in the canvas grocery bags she'd seen on the kitchen counter.

Dripping wet, Kagome opened her door and called out to Rin. The other girl didn't answer, and Kagome was getting cold. She fished around her room for a towel and discovered that she must have forgotten to get her towels out of the dryer...again. She grabbed her hand towel and dabbed at her hair a little bit before realizing it still had soap in it. She floundered around for her robe, but that was missing as well. _Whatever,_ she thought. _It won't be the first or last time Rin sees me naked._

She trundled herself downstairs, holding her arms loosely across her chest and tip-toeing to avoid getting the floor wet (which wasn't really working, but whatever, she could clean it up later). She turned left at the foot of the stairs to trot lightly into the kitchen. Unfortunately, her wet feet combined with the slick linoleum spelled certain disaster.

"Rin, did you get some-WHAT! Ooomph!"

Kagome slipped comically on the slick floor, but not before seeing a rather red-faced hanyou sitting at the kitchen table where Rin appeared to be pouring him a cup of coffee.

"WHAT THE HELL KAGOME?" Rin shrieked as Inuyasha lurched forward and grabbed Kagome just before she hit the ground. He set her on her feet and quickly shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it to her. She held it in front of her naked body sheepishly and backed up to the counter so no hanyous in the room could see her behind. Rin was fishing around in the dryer and tossed her a towel and her robe, muttering curses under her breath.

"Uh, thanks Rin," Kagome said. She eyed Inuyasha, who was not looking directly at her, but his face was about as red as the jacket now covering (not enough of) Kagome's body, and he looked like he was trying to hide a smile. "I came down for the….soap."

"Here!" Rin tossed a bag at Kagome, then realized her mistake as Kagome instinctively lifted her arms to catch it. "God, Inuyasha get on the porch!"

The hanyou made his escape while the two women fumbled to get Kagome into her robe and up the stairs. Lucky it was cool outside because his cheeks were on fire. He'd seen naked women before, but it was usually on purpose. Every day with Kagome was an adventure, apparently.

"What the fuck is wrong with you Kagome?" Rin clucked like an angry chicken as she pushed her roommate back into the bathroom to finish her shower. "I _told_ you he was here. Apparently Mr. Taisho wants you escorted to and from work from now on."

"You never told me he was here!" Kagome exclaimed, washing soap from her long tresses.

"Kagome I stuck my head in here this morning and I specifically said 'Inuyasha is here don't come downstairs naked', and when you didn't answer I asked if you had heard me and you said yes!"

"Well, I didn't hear you."

"Ha, maybe you did and you just wanted him to see you naked."

"Rin, if I wanted Inuyasha to see me naked don't you think I would have shaved before coming downstairs?" Kagome looked woefully down between her legs, an area that had been neglected in more ways than one.

"Hey, I don't claim to know how you think."

"Sometimes it feels like you do. Can you just make me some coffee please?"

"Fine, but you owe me! I had to play hostess to a grumpy demon this morning and now I'm going to have to go down there and pretend not to notice his boner while he waits for you to get done."

"I do NOT have a boner!" A gruff voice yelled from downstairs.

"Demon hearing!" Kagome groaned.

"Worse, _dog_ demon hearing," Rin agreed, then yelled back down to Inuyasha, "at least have the courtesy to pretend you have normal hearing!"

"I will as long as you're not talking about my...penis!"

Both Rin and Kagome busted out laughing at this. Downstairs in the kitchen, where he had poured himself another cup of coffee, Inuyasha rubbed his shoulder uncomfortably, a little embarrassed. He couldn't remember the last time he'd ever needed to say the word _penis_ out loud. It felt weird, and it certainly hadn't had the desired effect. The girls were still cackling upstairs like a pair of jackals. _Women._ They were the worst.

An hour later, Kagome was washed and blow-dried and bundled into the car with Inuyasha. Once they pulled away from the house, an awkward silence descended. Kagome pressed her hands up against the hot air vents and looked at the scenery passing by. It was early enough to still be slightly dark, and the frost glittered on the grass and the rooftops.

"I love this time of year," Kagome sighed. Then brightened. "Hey!" She turned to Inuyasha, "Do you think we could take the kids apple picking? Or, you know, to a corn maze or a pumpkin patch or something?"

"Uh," Inuyasha hedged for only a second. "Probably not."

"Why not? Is it because of me?" Kagome's eyes went wide.

"No," Inuyasha said quickly, face scrunching up grumpily. "Not _everything_ is about you, you know."

"Shut up. Why can't we go? Don't we want the kids to have normal experiences?"

"I just don't think my brother will go for it. First and foremost, we need to keep the kids safe."

"You're acting as though someone is hunting the kids."

"Listen Kags," Inuyasha said with a sneer. "I know you've been living in lala land your whole life, but some of us here have been around long enough to know that the world isn't the safest place for demons-or part demons-like your kids."

Kagome stared at the unpleasant look on Inuyasha's face, then slumped against the seat of the car in defeat.

"You're such a dick," She mumbled.

All Inuyasha thought was _dick! Why didn't I say 'dick' this morning?_ It just sounded better than the other…..


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Always Neuter Your Pets**

Kagome's first day back in class after realizing the world was not what she thought it was….well, it was a bit shaky at first. She looked around at the bright faces of her students and couldn't believe they weren't wholly human. She paid close attention to the very somber Kazuto, whose otherworldliness was more apparent than that of the other students...or maybe that was because Kagome knew he was full hanyou, like Inuyasha.

After a shaky morning where more than once a student asked her if she was all right, Kagome settled back into her old routine. She loved these kids, and perhaps she could love them more, knowing now how rare and special they all really were.

Mr. Taisho had been very clear with Kagome that she was not to say anything unusual to the students, most of whom knew nothing of their demon ancestry. For those with diluted demon blood, demonic traits did not usually present themselves until after the onset of puberty, if at all. Usually at the school, students were told around the end of 5th grade. Every now and then, according to Mr. Taisho, a human parents would know enough to talk to one of the students about their ancestry before that, but most of the children were living in the dorm facility located on campus.

" _Dorms?"_ Kagome had sputtered, when Mr. Taisho let this bomb drop.

"Yes, many students live in the outbuildings behind the gym."

"I haven't seen any outbuildings behind the gym!"

"You wouldn't, naturally, as they are concealed."

"Why do so many kids live at the school?" Kagome had asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Because many of them have lost both parents. We've made an effort to keep children with demonic blood out of foster care."

"Why do we have so many orphans?" Kagome wondered aloud.

Mr. Taisho had simply sighed and shaken his head. "That is a story for another day." He'd dismissed her from his office shortly thereafter, and a grouchy Inuyasha, who had been waiting outside, walked her to her classroom. They exchanged a few snide remarks before the bell rang and they had to rush to be in their respective classrooms in time to greet their students.

Currently, Kagome was watching the aforementioned hanyou instructing her students in basic self-defense technique. She'd been informed that she would continue her own training and so she thought it would be fun to participate in the kids' lesson as well. Inuyasha had merely grunted when she mentioned that she'd like to stay and participate in the lesson, but he'd tossed her a pair of sweatpants and put her in a group with two girls anyway.

Lizzy and Annie were currently giggling like mad at the prospect of "sparring" with their teacher, who they'd seen fall out of her chair after trying to inspect a run in her tights just an hour or so earlier. Kagome suspected they were amused by her presence in the class, but she played along just to keep them giggling (because it apparently annoyed Inuyasha a little bit). She imagined that his ears were twitching, but of course she couldn't see them through his concealment spell. _More's the pity,_ she thought. A pair of adorable puppy ears was the only redeeming quality the hanyou seemed to possess.

"Now make sure your knees stay soft," Inuyasha was saying, "and arms up to protect your face."

Kagome slipped into a fighting stance and raised her eyebrows at her two smaller partners, who did the same, still holding back giggles. Inuyasha was wandering among the rows of children, stopping here and there to modify their positions. It was clear to Kagome that Inuyasha, despite his short temper and gruff manner, was a great favorite with the students. She could understand why. He had a way about him when he was working with kids. He knew how to speak to them without speaking _down_ to them. He didn't use endearments and he rarely offered outright praise, but his keen observations and specific instructions made students feel like they were making progress.

Oops, he was coming over. She better look like she was doing something. Kagome rounded up Annie and Lizzy and whispered something to them as Inuyasha approached.

"Oy! Don't make me split your group up!" Inuyasha called, "I see you whisperin' over there!"

There was a chorus of giggles from the class, who were delighted to see their teacher reprimanded. Kagome just laughed with them and nodded casually to Annie and Lizzy. "Now," she said, and the two girls leapt into action. They screamed bloody murder and launched themselves at Inuyasha, whose eyes widened comically as he was pushed straight backwards onto the mat by a pair of giggling girls.

The hanyou caught on quickly, and allowed his arms to be pinned by his sides, grumbling protests and pretending to struggle.

"Remember, Sensei, always keep your hands up!" Annie shrieked gleefully.

"And never underestimate your apartment!" Lizzy chimed in with gusto.

"That's _opponent,_ Liz-biz," Kagome laughed. "Now hold him down tight; it's time for the final blow."

The class crowded around their prone gym teacher as Kagome walked leisurely up to him, thinking she would perhaps offer to help him up and then trip him. Anything to show him she wasn't as much of a bumbling idiot as he thought she was.

Inuyasha's eyes narrowed. What did she think she was doing? Kagome stalked towards him like a predator, and her smile didn't exactly meet her eyes. He actually felt a tiny bit nervous. Playing around with the kids was one thing-he did that all the time-but this was something else entirely! Surely she wouldn't zap him in front of her class?

Kagome smiled sexily (Inuyasha inwardly groaned as soon as he thought it) and leaned down, offering her hand. Lizzy and Annie released him so that he could reach up to take it. Kagome hoisted him to his feet, but her sudden movement unnerved him, and before he knew it he had dodged her leg (which was out, apparently, in order to trip him) and stepped in so he could force her down onto the mat below.

To Inuyasha, it was a routine sparring move. But to Kagome, for whom all of these things were very new, it felt threatening. The tiniest thread of spiritual power flickered like a spark in between their bodies. Inuyasha felt his hair stand on end as though he was experiencing static electricity. Kagome's eyes went wide suddenly and he could see that she was afraid she might lose control. He gripped her arm in what he hoped was a reassuring manner and helped her sit up. "You're okay, you're okay," He told her under his breath. "I'm sorry, you're okay."

"The kids," Kagome muttered, looking scared. Most of the students were beginning to crowd in on them.

"You're not going to hurt them," Inuyasha muttered, "You didn't even hurt me. Look, I'm fine. Just calm. Down."

Inuyasha did not feel it was necessary to point out to Kagome that she was glowing faintly pink. That would probably only make her more nervous, and therefore, pinker.

Kagome and Inuyasha's ride home that night was a quiet affair. They had both been thoroughly berated by Sesshomaru, who seemed to take their display during gym class very personally because it necessitated the initiation for the students that had been planned at a later time. Tomorrow Kagome's class would be told who they were and the process of working with their demonic powers would begin. Sesshomaru had apparently hoped that they could wait for at least another year before being told, but now that her entire class had seen Kagome light up like a Christmas tree, questions would have to be answered.

Kagome felt a little shell-shocked. Mr. Taisho was intimidating when he was in a _good_ mood. His icy anger was nothing short of terrifying. Even Inuyasha, who normally blustered and swore in tense situations, stayed silent and grim throughout the whole experience. Well, he hadn't been exactly silent.

"Thanks for standing up for me," Kagome said softly, feeling that she owed the grouchy hanyou that much.

"Nah, it was nothin'", Inuyasha responded uncomfortably. "I just didn't want you to quit and then I'd have to follow you around to whatever new job you got. At least this way we work at the same place."

"You're saying if I quit you would still escort me to and from work?" Kagome asked incredulously. "That's like, serious stalker-stuff Inuyasha."

"Shut up. He would make me do it. Not like I would want to or anything."

"But why?" Kagome asked. Inuyasha glanced at her.

"You don't get it, Kags," He said, using a recently acquired nickname that she was beginning to loathe. "You're special. You have a lot of power, and as you can tell, it can get out of control."

"So I'm dangerous? You're here to keep me in line?" Kagome asked acerbically.

"You _are_ dangerous, but what's really dangerous is the fact that every time you go pink, it's like you are painting a bullseye on your forehead. There are people around who know about demons, Kagome, and they don't particularly like it that we're here."

"Is this was Mr. Taisho decided _not_ to tell me yet?"

"Part of it," Inuyasha allowed. "Right now I think he just wants to make sure we know where you are at all times, and that someone is watching out for you, even at night."

"Does that mean you camp out outside my house at night? That's so creepy." Kagome groaned.

"I do _NOT_ camp out!" Inuyasha protested. "And it wouldn't be so creepy if you would just invest in some fucking _pajamas…"_

"Oh my fucking GOD!" Kagome yelled, causing the hanyou to wince. "You've been SPYING on me? Jesus Christ!"

"It's not spying when you leave the window open like that! Do you even know how to lower the blinds?! It's not like I want to see you naked all the time! It just keeps happening!"

"I'm going to kill you Inuyasha." Kagome said darkly. "I'm going to _murder you in your sleep._ "

"Better me than some other bastard watching your naked ass waltz around your room!" Inuyasha spluttered. Kagome reeled back.

"I do not _watz_ around my room naked for yours or anyone else's pleasure!" She shrieked. Inuyasha sneered.

"You don't, huh? Why do you always look so sexy, then?" He regretted it as soon as it came out of his mouth.

"SEXY? I'm getting ready for fucking bed! You think that's sexy?"

Inuyasha felt his only choice was to double down or reveal himself embarrassingly.

"Of course you're trying to be sexy!" He roared back, face reddening. "Skipping around with your toothbrush hanging out of your mouth, or standing in the front of the mirror brushing your hair. Who...er...who brushes their hair naked?"

"I'm sorry, I guess I didn't know someone was WATCHING me!" Kagome yelled. "Next time I'll cover up so as not to offend your delicate sensibilities!"

"Oh, don't cover up on my account!" Inuyasha said, "Just do what you normally do, especially the yoga, that part's really ni-"

"Stop the fucking car, we're here." Kagome said. Inuyasha brought the car to a stop in front of her house, feeling absurdly as though he were winning this fight. Kagome looked deeply flustered and embarrassed. He rejoiced inwardly.

"If you peep in on me again tonight I'll neuter you. With my teeth." She said, getting out of the car and slamming the door shut without even looking back at him.

Inuyasha no longer felt like rejoicing.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Cuddle Puddle**

Time passed in a blur for Kagome. Most mornings began with a rude wake-up call in the form of a grumpy hanyou calling up the stairs for her. Inuyasha had taken over for Rin in the monumental effort of keeping Kagome in line, and Kagome found that she delighted in trying to make this task as difficult for him as possible.

After the incident in which Inuyasha inadvertently revealed that he occasionally enjoyed seeing Kagome's naked form as she readied for bed, Kagome had considered being naked as often as possible in the house just to get him back for it. Let him sit outside with blue balls all night long, she didn't care! But when the thought of Inuyasha watching her naked body sent a pulse of heat through her body, she decided to play it safe. She assumed that Inuyasha's super-nose might pick up on something like that and he might take it as an invitation to bring his guard duty inside. Into her bedroom.

So in a conciliatory effort Kagome had purchased a few pairs of pajama bottoms to wear with her most comfortable T-shirts. She had a habit of going to bed dressed and waking up naked, but at least she wasn't giving her hanyou guard an eye full of ass every single night.

Once he was assured that she wasn't going to physically assault him for his peeping-tom ways, Inuyasha began spending more time _inside_ the house. Rin noticed him sitting in the tree in the side-yard and invited him in for dinner one night. The next night, Kagome made steak and Inuyasha invited _himself_ in for dinner. After he nodded off at the table on the third night (burrito night), Kagome insisted that he sleep inside on the couch.

After that Inuyasha sort of moved in. He and Kagome still glared at each other any time they were together, and threats of dismemberment were suddenly very common in the household. Kagome asked Inuyasha why nobody else seemed to have guard duty like he did, and he muttered something about his bastard brother not trusting anyone else with her. He didn't seem happy with the arrangement, so Kagome left it alone. She knew he wouldn't be hanging around so much if he didn't have to.

Inuyasha had slept on the couch for the first week, then he ended up on the daybed in the upstairs hall for another week. After Kagome found him sleeping on the landing outside of her door and pointed out how creepy he was being, he went back downstairs to the couch. Every third night or so, she still found him sleeping propped up against her door. Once or twice he would make it into her room, and she would wake up to pee in the middle of the night and trip over his form, which was usually slumped over the end of her bed like he fell asleep while trying to crawl into it.

Every morning Inuyasha would wake her up, either by calling loudly from the kitchen that breakfast was ready (he had been allowing Rin to teach him how to cook) or by coming up into her room and staring at her until she woke, screamed, and he howled with laughter. Once she was showered and changed, she would endure Inuyasha's badly cooked breakfasts and terrible coffee. The first few times he'd cooked for her she'd been honest in her reviews, but it was just so pathetic to see his ears literally droop. She started lying to cheer him up, perhaps also as a kind of reward for the fact that he felt comfortable enough around the house to drop his concealment spell. Rin was much better at the charade, though. Her sincere praise was always well-received by Inuyasha, who treated her with much more respect than he did Kagome. Perhaps out of deference to (or fear of) his brother.

After breakfast, Inuyasha and Kagome would drive to work together. Most mornings they went straight to the gym, where Shippo would be waiting to train Kagome in more fighting skills. Some mornings Kagome and Inuyasha arrived before anyone else was in the building to experiment with Kagome's spiritual powers. By Halloween, she could make herself glow at will. By the second week of November, she could shoot sparks from her hands. The next week she managed to ignite a katana with glowing pink energy. Occasionally, during these sessions, she would slip over the line of control and "go pink", as Inuyasha put it. Small explosions were common. The hanyou's presence was a welcome buffer, though, as he always seemed to know what to say to calm her down. "Going pink" was usually a result of fear, and it tended to happen when Kagome accidentally stumbled on an example of her own enormous power. She feared, more than anything else, that she could hurt the people around her. Inuyasha, who showed her plenty of contempt but absolutely zero fear, usually managed to calm her down enough to avoid any major incidents. After a few sessions, the two worked out a delicate balance of encouragement mixed with gruffness. Whenever Kagome began to light up, Inuyasha would switch between comforting her and trash-talking to her. For some reason she found his gruff manner familiar and comforting.

Kagome threw herself into teaching her class of part-demons. Since her debacle with Inuyasha in the gym, the class had been given the "lesson", as Sesshomaru put it, on demons and demonic traits. Many of the students were not surprised, a few were stunned, and one or two were inconsolable for a time. Kagome spent that particular day comforting Dax and Abigail while a ghostly silent Kazuto said nothing but shadowed her every move.

When Kagome had started teaching at the school, she'd been given the impression that they had a higher-than-average number of students from unfortunate families. Apparently due to Sesshomaru's strict security protocols, she hadn't really been aware of the scope of the school until recently. The students didn't come from unfortunate families. They were orphans, or as good as orphans, most of them.

The students lived behind the school in a huge dormitory, where Shippo, Inuyasha, and a number of the other teachers lived. Of course Inuyasha was currently giving up his duties as a den mother and crashing on her couch, but that was neither here nor there.

Since the students didn't really have normal families, Kagome found that they attached firmly to her. She didn't mind. She hadn't had the best family life herself, and she welcomed the chance to open up her heart to this group of hurting children. She could identify with their fear and confusion. Hadn't she also just been told she had dangerous power?

As a result of her renewed devotion to her class, Kagome began staying later at school, accompanying her students to dinner and spending time with them in the evening. Inuyasha grumbled about being made to stay late but he still agreed to throw a ball or frisbee whenever he was asked, which was often.

One evening in early December, Kagome left Inuyasha on the lawn in front of the dormitory (which she still had trouble seeing, thanks to Rin) where he was currently trying to explain the finer points of soccer to a group of kids. She wanted to pack a few things up in her classroom before going home, and the class hamster-cage (not the mention the hamster) needed a little cleaning out.

She was elbow-deep in cedar shavings when Sesshomaru appeared at her door, looking into her room with a puzzled expression.

"Mr. Taisho?" Kagome said, staring at him. "I didn't realize you would be in the school this late."

"I was just getting my computer out of my office. Why are _you_ here so late?" Sesshomaru responded.

"Well I was just getting Captain Sparkle Breeches' cage a little cleaning…." Kagome said. "Inuyasha was still playing soccer and I know you asked him to take me home, so I didn't think-"

Sesshomaru interrupted her with a raised finger.

"Captain Sparkle Breeches?" He asked. Kagome giggled.

"Last time I ever let ten-year-olds name the class pet," She explained. Sesshomaru nodded, and then turned as if to leave. Just as Kagome thought he was gone, she heard his voice again.  
"Did you say Inuyasha told you I asked him to give you rides?" He asked.

Kagome wasn't sure what he was getting at. "No, it's like the guarding thing. I know you asked him to keep an eye on me. He's staying at my place right now."

"Ah, I see." Sesshomaru said thoughtfully. "Where did you say he was right now?"

"He was playing with the kids on the lawn. Why?"

"No reason. I'm sure he'll come to collect you when he's ready to leave."

The imposing Mr. Taisho, suddenly looking even more imposing than usual, left. Kagome went back to cleaning out Captain Sparkle's cage, humming softly under her breath.

Inuyasha felt the surge of his brother's _youki_ before he even saw him. He looked up from the impromptu huddle he had formed with a group of girls (they were determined to beat their male counterparts, as the soccer game had devolved into a kind of pre-teen battle of the sexes). Sesshomaru crested the hill that sloped from the courtyard of the school down to the dormitory, then stood still. Inuyasha knew he was being summoned. He wasn't sure what the problem was, but he couldn't think of anything stupid he'd done lately...so maybe it was someone else who was in trouble? He left his team and reluctantly joined Sesshomaru at the top of the hill.

"What is it?" He said, when he reached the towering demon. "Calm the fuck down you're going to scare the kids. Some of them can sense this kind of thing."

"I am calm," Sesshomaru said, looking out at the horizon. "And I am going to calmly ask you what you think you are doing with the miko."

"What? I'm not doing anything with her!" Inuyasha bristled at the unspoken allegation.

"Then why are you sitting outside of her house night after night under the pretext of guarding her? And why would you tell her I ordered you to do that?"

"She needs guarding! You said it yourself!" Inuyasha protested.

"Which is why I place four of my closest guards around her property."

Inuyasha scoffed. "Those guys are hacks," He said. "You shouldn't trust them with something so important."

"They _are_ hacks if none of them noticed you were there."

Inuyasha said nothing. Sesshomaru glanced at him.

"She said you were staying with her."

"I figured you knew. Aren't you seeing Rin?"

"No."

There was a long silence. Sesshomaru broke it.

"You want this woman."

"No!" Inuyasha said quickly.

"Liar. I can tell when you're around her. But hear me when I say this brother," Sesshomaru said, his voice deadly quiet, "Do not indulge yourself. There are some things even you and I should not touch."

"I'm not indulging myself!" Inuyasha said angrily, just as Kagome's scent wafted over to him. He looked behind Sesshomaru to see her trotting out of the courtyard toward them. As he watched her make her way over to them, Inuyasha considered his brother's accusation. Yes, Kagome was desirable. Could be that he desired her. Right now, for instance, she was wearing his favorite short skirt and her hair was gathered up in a messy bun. Dark tendrils framed her face. Her eyes were bright as she reached them.

"Ready to go?" She said, "Rin just texted me that she's making homemade ramen tonight. You'll love it!" Impulsively she grasped his hand and pulled him back towards the school. Inuyasha felt a little pink in the face but didn't comment on the contact. He was too busy trying to tune out his brother's subsonic growl.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: Every Girl's Dream**

"Inuyasha, stop it, I can't eat anymore!" Kagome protested as he scooped another pile of scrambled eggs onto her plate. "What's with you?"

"You're too damn skinny," Inuyasha responded, adding a few strips of bacon on top of the eggs. "You eat like a fucking bird."

"It's no use Inuyasha," Rin said from across the table, where she was nursing her second cup of coffee. "I've been trying to get her to eat more for years."

"I eat enough!" Kagome groused. "Geez Inuyasha, you are turning into such a mother hen. Who asked you to take care of me?"

Inuyasha was not intimidated. "Somebody's got to. You're a mess."

"Shut the fuck up. I'm fine. And we're going to be late for work." Kagome got up, stuffing a piece of bacon into her mouth. "smhppy?" She asked Inuyasha around the food.

"Yep!" Inuyasha said brightly, grabbing his red jacket off the back of his chair. "Let's go!"

"You shouldn't have made me eat so much," Kagome groaned, adjusting the waistband of her skirt. "None of my clothes are fitting anymore, thanks to you."

"Then buy new clothes," Inuyasha said blithely. "You look good."

"Oh, shut up." Kagome said, disgusted. She looked out the car window, feeling a little hot around the collar. Inuyasha eyed her from the driver's seat.

"You really have a problem accepting compliments, don't you?" He said.

"I do not."

"Yes you do. You've never once said thank you when I complimented you."

"Well you've never complimented me. You just criticize me."

"I just told you that you looked good! That's a compliment!"

"It's a back-handed compliment!" Kagome said, sitting up.

"What do you mean?" Inuyasha asked, getting angrier.

"You didn't like the way I looked before. You're just happy now because you've been fattening me up!"

"I'm not fattening you up! I'm bringing you into the normal range of healthy!"

"I was perfectly healthy before!"  
"Even Rin said you were getting too skinny."

"Well I've been stressed. Something happened to me a few months ago that _changed my entire fucking life._ Also I get a daily beating from you or Shippo. That burns some calories."

Inuyasha smiled a little. "You don't get beat so often anymore. You almost had me the other day."

"Whatever."

"SEE?" Inuyasha pounced gleefully. "That was a compliment and you couldn't accept it!"

Kagome could tell when she was beat, so she changed tactics.

"Why are you so intent on getting me to gain weight?" She asked sweetly. Inuyasha sensed a trap but couldn't quite figure how to avoid it.

"I don't know," He said. "It must be a dog thing."

"A _dog_ thing?"

"Yeah. I guess since I started protecting you, I just have an instinct to take care of you."

"An instinct. You have animal instincts."

"More or less. I wasn't raised by a dog demon, though, so sometimes there are things I don't know."  
"You could ask your brother."

"Ha. I'd rather get run through with a sword than ask my brother about instincts. He would know, but he wouldn't want to tell me."

"Why not?"

"'Cause he's a vindictive bastard."

"That doesn't really explain it."

"Look, it's like having to have the puberty talk with someone. It's embarrassing. Instincts are...personal."

"Ew. But you're talking about it with me."

"Well, you're different."

"How so?"

"You're just not as bright as the average person. It's therapeutic. Kind of like talking to a ten-year-ol-OW!"

Kagome smacked Inuyasha upside the head, but it didn't stop his chuckles.

"You are a tool, you know that?"

"And you are easy to piss off. It's satisfying. Like playing putt-putt golf."

"Hardy har. Of course you know I have the upper hand now."

"You do not," said Inuyasha, pulling into a parking space in the front of the school.

"Yes I do. I have your instincts in a tizzy."

"My instincts are not in a tizzy."

"Wanna bet?" Kagome unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned across to the driver's seat. She reached up to slowly rub a spell-concealed puppy ear. Inuyasha froze, then shivered slightly. Kagome whispered softly, her breath fanning his face.

"Today I'm going to eat a salad for lunch, with _nothing else._ " She said in her sexiest voice.

Inuyasha stiffened, then glanced over at her.

"What?" he said, confused. "I thought you were about to say something sexy?"

"That _was_ sexy!" Kagome said indignantly.

"No it wasn't."

"It was a play on words, about how much you want me to eat!"

"I don't get it."

"I was being naughty! Because you think I should eat more!"

"Hmm? Oh...okay…"

"And like, if I say _nothing else…._ it's like I'm naked!"

"Wait, you're going to eat lunch naked? Sick! You work at a school!"

"Not literally! I was trying to make you think of me naked!"

"Yeah, you don't need to try that hard. Just walk away in that skirt."

"What do you mean?" Kagome suddenly sounded paranoid. "You think my skirt is too short?"

"You're impossible. That's another compliment you just blew over."

"God I hate you." Kagome said, scowling. She opened the door. "That's the last time I'm going to try to be sexy with you. It's like trying to be sexy to a brick wall."

"Hate you too!" Inuyasha said cheerfully as Kagome climbed out of the car. She turned to look at him.

"Aren't you coming?"

"Uh, Sesshomaru just texted. Needs me to do a coffee run. Go see if Shippo can do your lesson this morning."

"Uh….okay whatever." Kagome turned and flounced inside. Inuyasha sighed, and started the car back up. It would be a few minutes before he felt like he could walk into an elementary school without scandalizing everyone.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14: The Birds and the Bees**

"Inuyasha."

"What?"

"Either come in or go away. I'm tired of your hovering."

Inuyasha slumped through the doorway of his least-favorite room of the school-his brother's office. Sesshomaru sat behind his desk typing on a silver laptop. Miroku grinned warmly at Inuyasha from where he sat at a conference table, poring over financial reports. Inuyasha looked a little warily at him.

"Uh…."

"What is it, brother?" Sesshomaru said, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose with a clawed hand (he rarely bothered with concealment spells once he was safely in his office).

"I need to talk to you."

"Apparently."

"About something."

"Clearly."

"Shit, Sesshomaru...can we have some privacy?"

Miroku, who had been following the exchange amiably, affected a harassed look.

"I'm so offended!" He said with mock indignation. "What would you try to hide from me?"

"Just go away." Inuyasha said grumpily. Miroku gathered up his things and left, slamming the door a little as he went. Sesshomaru sighed and looked up at his brother, who was clearly very uncomfortable.

"What is it?"

"I wanted to ask you about something kind of..personal."

"Oh god. Did father never tell you where babies come from?" Sesshomaru drawled. "Perhaps you shouldn't have asked the monk to leave. He's an expert in that matter."

"Shut the fuck up."

"That would be hard to do if you actually came here to ask me something."

"Okay, okay….this is for a friend, got it? So there's no reason to get mad and bite my head off."

"Inuyasha, what are you talking about?"

"I want to ask you about girls."

There was a long pause while Sesshomaru stared at his younger brother. When he spoke, his voice was like ice.

"I have already told you not to touch the girl. You cannot-"

"Fuck, Sess," Inuyasha groaned and planted himself in a chair, holding his head in his hands. "Can you ever just….forget about being my boss or the Lord of the Western Lands and just be a guy? Just be my brother?"

Another long pause. Sesshomaru considered the possibility, then decided. Nodding his head slightly, he spoke simply.

"You have a friend with girl problems?"

It was all the opening Inuyasha needed. He leaned forward slightly.

"Yeah, I've got a friend….he met this girl, you see?"

"Yes."

"And at first he wasn't too impressed with her. I mean, she's hot, but she seemed kind of strange at first. But now that he knows her better, he's really...erm….attracted to her."

"Your _friend_ should know about attraction. What's the mystery there?"

"It's not the attraction that's confusing. He's been attracted to girls before. But this girl makes him….makes him want to do things."

"God. Dare I ask what things he wants to do to her?"

"Not like that!" Inuyasha protested quickly, then stopped to think. "Well, yeah, like that, but also like other things."

"Let me guess. He's taken with an overwhelming urge to cook for her and feed her?"

"Yes! And I...he's noticed that she has gotten a little fuller and it makes him feel…."

"Proud? Satisfied?"

"Yeah. Definitely. What the hell is that about?"

"Does he also have trouble staying away from her physically?"

"Yeah he tends to crawl into her bed at night."

Sesshomaru felt that he may have made a mistake in agreeing to advise as merely a "guy". Surely Inuyasha wasn't physically assaulting Kagome on a nightly basis?

"What your friend is experiencing is normal for yukai males. I wasn't entirely sure if you would experience it, though, so I never explained it fully to you."

"Why didn't you think I would experience it?"  
"Well, because I don't recall any of this behavior on your part when you were seeing Kikyou."

Inuyasha drooped a little bit.

"We never really saw each other. You know, she was a priestess. Plus I was a lot younger then."

"Indeed. Well I can say that the behavior you are describing is typical for an inuyukai male who has found a female he wants to mate. He wants to prove to her that he can provide, he wants her to be strong and well-fed to bear his pups, and he wants other males to stay away from her, thus the impulse to be as close as possible at all times."

"Oh. Shit." Inuyasha looked stunned.

"Yes. Shit. Are you telling me that you have been feeling this way about Ms. Higurashi?"

Inuyasha shrugged. At this point, why lie? "Yeah. Big time."

"Does she return the feelings?"

Inuyasha thought to himself, then answered.

"If her scent is anything to go by, she's not totally disgusted by me...but then I don't know what human females do when they find a mate."

"I confess neither do I. Although television suggests that they wear more makeup and less clothing."

A minute of silence passed. Sesshomaru wanted to go back to his computer but Inuyasha remained in his chair. Finally the hanyou spoke.

"You're saying I can't have her?"

"I'm saying a union between the two of you would be immensely irritating to me."

"But don't you want to get with her roommate?"

"Unlike you, Inuyasha, I can control myself. What I want and what I plan to do are two different things."

"You literally growled at me the last time I touched Rin! So you're saying you're not going to get her? You're happy for some human man to have her?"

"I'm saying," Sesshomaru said, voice rising, "That I _will not endanger her life any more_ by including myself unnecessarily in it! And I suggest you take the same path. Human women are fragile, you should know this more than most."

"What are you not telling me?" Inuyasha said hotly. "We're as safe here as we've been in years. Sure, we have to make sure those human wackos don't find the kids and try to exterminate them, but we've been dealing with that for centuries. What's got you so scared?"

"Naraku has been spotted."

Inuyasha stared at his brother with wide golden eyes.

"FUCK! Where?"

"Near enough to be a problem."

"I thought he wouldn't make it here."

"You were wrong. My sources tell me he's on the continent. He's passing as a human, apparently."

"That sick fuck."

"So you understand, he is coming after us?"

"Yeah."

"And you may want to keep your woman out of it."

"Well apparently she can't _be_ my woman." Inuyasha said churlishly. Then he sat up straighter, eyeing his brother. "Wait a minute, how can Kagome stay out of it? Didn't you hire her as a line of defense?"

"No, I hired her to keep her close. She is still too volatile to be of any use to us."

Inuyasha knew that Kagome's control was impressive after months of training, but he didn't vocalize that. He was only too happy to keep her away from harm.

"So, you're saying I can't have her." He said, circling back to the point of his meeting to begin with.

"I can't tell you what to do, brother." Sesshomaru said, suddenly sounding very tired. "But if you do mate with her, she will only be in more danger than she was before. You would be painting a target on her back."

Inuyasha left the office, feeling hollow.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter Fifteen: To Hell With Good Advice**

Kagome shivered as she stepped out of Inuyasha's car. He'd been droopy all day and the ride back from work had been excruciatingly silent. Kagome had spent most of the day trying to figure out why her hanyou friend seemed to glum, but he was a mystery to her even when he was in a _good_ mood. She turned back to him, holding the passenger door open.

"Uh, Inuyasha?"

"Uh-huh?" His eyes were on the road.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." He sighed. Kagome could tell he wasn't fine, but she wasn't sure how far to push him to get him to fess up.

"Are you coming in tonight?" She asked. Inuyasha shook his head slowly. Kagome was surprised at how disappointed she was. He must have sensed it too, because he did manage to look over and give her a small smile.

"It's nothing, I just need a night to myself is all." He said, trying to sound more cheerful. Kagome's narrowed eyes told him she wasn't fooled, but she didn't argue.

"Goodnight then." She said simply, then turned and walked away. Inuyasha stared at her as she went. Was she _trying_ to look so...so delicious? Or was it knowing that he couldn't have her making him want her all the more?

Inuyasha shook his head roughly and drove away, thinking that he might as well return to school to organize the gym closet. He'd be back once Kagome fell asleep. Even if he couldn't touch her, he wouldn't leave her unguarded now that he knew Naraku was around. That bastard could probably smell Kagome's intense purity miles away.

Kagome rushed into the house and was greeted with the delectable smell of apple cider. The house was warm and it appeared that Rin had been into the attic because the box of Christmas decorations was out on the coffee table.

"Inuyasha!" Rin called from the kitchen. "Would mind hauling a few things down from the attic for me?"

"He's not here," Kagome said, as she entered the kitchen and sat down at the table to pull off her boots. Rin was stirring a big cauldron of apple cider on the stove. She looked over at Kagome curiously.

"Where is he?"

"Who the hell knows? He was gloomy all day and then wouldn't come in. Says he needs a night to himself."

"Hmmm. What's the man version of PMS?"  
"No clue. Whatever." Kagome said, disgusted. Rin poured her a glass of apple cider and passed it over to her at the table, taking a seat opposite her. Kagome sipped appreciatively.

"Rin, is this spiked?" She asked over the rim of her glass.

"Yes it is. It's Friday."

"Thank god. Let's get drunk."

"All the sugar in this will give you the worst hangover, Kagome. Don't overdo it."

"I know, I know."

The two girls sipped their cider in silence for a few minutes. Rin looked sadly over at Kagome.

"We're pathetic." She said.

"Worse than pathetic. Why am I so disappointed?" Kagome said. "It's not like he'll _never_ be back. And he was kind of squatting anyway. Or stalking."

"He's been giving you lots of attention lately," Rin observed.

"Yeah. He says it's instinct."

"He told you that?"

"Yeah. When I asked him what that meant, he said even he didn't know. I told him to talk to his brother, but I bet he didn't. He said it would be like asking someone about puberty."

"Ew."

"No kidding."

"So do you see much of his brother these days?"

"Not really."

"Think he's really busy?"

"Maybe. Why, is he not calling you as often as you'd like?"

Rin looked down at her glass, then shrugged.

"I don't know. He doesn't call at all. I guess I had thought maybe he was interested. I know I was."

Kagome shuddered.

"But he's so icy and scary, how can you want him?"

"I don't know," Rin said, "I feel like I've known him from somewhere. I feel like I've known him my whole life somehow, or like I remember him from a dream."

"You sound like you're about to burst into song."

"Shut the hell up. I'm serious. He's familiar to me. Like when you smell something that reminds you of your parents."

"Okay, I get it."

"I invited him over but he ended up canceling on me. Then he never called. I guess I should know when I'm being blown off….but it just sucks. He gave me all the right signals. When he was around me...he seemed interested. He sure looked at me a lot."

"I remember. I saw some of that. It was gross."

"Like I don't have to put up with the way Inuyasha basically drools over you constantly." Rin retorted.

"What!" Kagome squealed. "You think he drools over me?"

"Kagome, for a smart girl you can be so stupid. That boy is crazy about you. Like scary crazy, stalker crazy, showing up on your doorstep with a rin crazy for you. Why do you think he hangs around here so much? He barely gives me a second glance. Everything is for you. He smells your hair when you're not looking."

"Then what's with him?" Kagome wondered out loud. "I seriously flirted with him yesterday. Why doesn't he ask me out?"

"You want him to?"

Kagome thought about it for a minute. She considered saying no, or just that she didn't know, but the truth was that she did know.

"Yeah. I like him. I like how he acts all grumpy but does the sweetest things."

"There it is."

"And I like how he makes me feel. When he looks at me I feel pretty."

"Now who is bursting into song?"

"And I like the way he looks too. Fuck. Have you seen him shirtless? I want to drag my teeth across his abs."

"...Kagome is that even a thing?"

"And when he drops his spell, I just want to rub those ears so much-"

"Ok stop you're making me sick!" Rin wailed. "I'm just going to call Sesshomaru. Lay it out for him. See where he stands."

"That's always a bad idea. You should at least have a reason for him to come over."

Rin tapped her chin thoughtfully.

"Hmmm, what would be a good enough reason to bring the great dog demon over to my house? Also if he says he'll come you have to get out of here."

"What the hell! Where am I supposed to go?"

"I don't care!" Rin said shortly. "But you'll go and stay away at least two hours. I think I can get him into bed by then, or at least to some over-the-shirt stuff."

Kagome snorted into her cider.

"Whose shirt?" She asked, "Yours or his?"

"Both, hopefully," Rin said brightly, pulling out her cell phone. "Now help me come up with a good idea"

Sesshomaru was just sitting down with a cup of tea when his cell phone vibrated in his pocket. Sighing, he pulled it out and glanced down.

 _Rin._

Sesshomaru knew the best thing would be not to answer. After flirting with the idea of accepting her invitation to dinner, he'd realized that he couldn't put her in any more danger. He was also a little worried that she might remember him. She'd grown comfortable around him much more quickly than most humans did. He knew that even with his concealment spell, he was an intimidating figure.

He listened to the phone's vibration and idly thought of the way her hands looked covered in earth, her slender wrists, her delicate forearms…

Before he had even decided to do so, Sesshomaru found himself answering the phone.

"Yes?"

"Mr. Taisho?"

"Yes."

"This is Rin."

"Yes I know. How are you this evening?"

"I'm fine, I just...would you mind coming over?"

"To your house?"

"Yes, I was hoping you would help me look for Kagome."

"Kagome's gone somewhere?"

"She did, and I'm a little worried about her. I was hoping you would come and get me so that we could look for her together."

"Isn't Inuyasha with her?"

"No, Inuyasha dropped her off tonight and didn't stay."

"I'll go find her myself."

There was a pause on the line. Sesshomaru forced himself not to huff in exasperation. In person, he could almost always tell when someone was lying by their breathing and pulse. Over the phone, there were still clues but it wasn't as clear cut. Was Rin just trying to come up with an excuse to see him? Or was she really worried about her friend?

"Please, Sesshomaru….just come get me first, okay?" Rin said. Sesshomaru sighed.

"I'll be there soon." He promised, already out the door.

Rin hung up the phone and looked at her friend meaningfully. Kagome sat up straighter.

"You have to go," Rin said.

"I heard," Kagome said dryly. "You could've waited long enough for me to eat dinner."

"Well, I panicked."

"Yeah. Okay I guess I'll go get something to eat out. How do you plan to convince him not to actually look for me?"

"Uh, you're going to text me in a few minutes to tell me you're okay."

"Fine. Leave the porch light on if you don't want me coming back inside….you know."

Wishing she had at least changed into something more comfortable than her work skirt and tights, Kagome grabbed her bag and headed out the door.

Kagome had just sat down to enjoy a burger at her favorite diner when her currently least-favorite hanyou burst in, causing quite a scene. He marched past the hostess, who was obviously doing her best to remain polite, and made a beeline for where Kagome sat in a booth at the back of the restaurant. Kagome did her best to chew and swallow, but he didn't give her enough time, so when he planted his hands on his hips and said, "Just what the hell were you thinking?" All she could manage in response was, "Mmhhfgf dhdh shgsfhjdh."

Inuyasha rolled his eyes and sat down. "Figures."

Kagome swallowed.

"What in the Jesus is wrong with you?" She said indignantly. "I'm just eating dinner!"

"Running off like that! Sesshomaru called me. He said Rin-what?" He stopped talking as Kagome sniggered.

"Obviously that was just a booty call."

" _What_? Your roommate is booty calling my brother?"

"Yeah, and it sounds like she was a little too convincing. He must have not realized what she was doing."

"Yeah. Sesshomaru doesn't claim to know much about human females."

"Yick. Human females? That's sounds so clinical."

"Just sayin'. So she used you as an excuse _and_ kicked you out? That's cold."

"Hey, I'm always there to help a friend get laid."

There was a pause while Inuyasha wrestled his mind out of the gutter. Kagome suddenly squealed and took out her phone.

"I forgot! I'm supposed to text her that I'm okay so he won't insist on looking for me."

"So your roommate is currently trying to seduce my brother?" Inuyasha recapped. "Looks like she'll be disappointed then."

"What? You're saying he's not interested in her?"

"I don't know about that. I'm saying he won't sleep with her. In fact he'll probably call me off the search in a minute."

Kagome sent her text and sat back, looking skeptically at Inuyasha, who glowered back. Kagome picked up her burger and took another bite, still eyeing the hanyou who had intruded on her solitary dinner.

Inuyasha's phone rang. He grinned triumphantly and answered it. After a terse conversation, he hung up and smirked at Kagome.

"Turns out he's leaving. Apparently you're wrong."

Kagome chewed on a few french fries, smiling right back at Inuyasha.

"Invite him out." She said.

"What?"

"Call him back and invite him out. Or tell him you need to see him or something. If he agrees to see you, I'll buy you dinner. But if he refuses, you pay my bill."

Inuyasha didn't respond, but he did get his phone back out and dial his brother. After a few rings, Sesshomaru picked up.

"Hey Sess," Inuyasha said, "Seeing as how you aren't busy tonight, how about we go for a hunt? It's been a while."

"Tonight's not a good night for that." Came the curt reply.

"What about a movie?"

"Nothing out I want to see."

"Listen, my car's broken down-"

 _click._

He'd hung up. Inuyasha looked up at Kagome.

"That fuck." He said.

"Thanks for dinner!" She replied cheerfully.

Inuyasha ordered himself a burger since he'd be paying anyway, and he and Kagome ate together. He tried to act normal and joke with her like he always did, but his mind was elsewhere. He was fuming. How could Sesshomaru warn him off of Kagome and then go get the other girl for himself? What a hypocrite!

Inuyasha stare at the girl opposite him. She was currently mixing a packet of mayonaise with ketchup and mustard, using her fork as a mixing spoon. A tendril of dark hair had escaped her updo and hung around her face. She was beautiful, even after a long day at work in the back of this sweaty diner, Kagome was gorgeous. Her face was flushed slightly, her lips were pink but she never seemed to wear lipstick, which Inuyasha liked. Her eyes were wide and dark and stunning. Everything about her seemed graceful to him...which was odd considering the scene she'd made in the lobby the day they met. Her personality attracted him too. She was foul-mouthed and a little brash, but she didn't play games (or she wasn't very good at them) and she always spoke her mind. Inuyasha knew better than most what humans around him were feeling (the nose), and he could testify that Kagome usually vocalized her emotions. There was no guessing with her.

His eyes dropped down to her blouse and the buttons apparently straining to keep it closed. He wasn't sure why she dressed like that, but he wasn't complaining. He considered the mounds of her breasts while chewing a french fry of his own. He'd been pissed all day to have to be so near her but not get to have her. She was right there! And everything about her drew him in. How was he supposed to say no to that? When even Sesshomaru, the ice king, was incapable of resisting?

How much danger would she really be in? If they were together, he could protect her even better. He wouldn't sleep out on the landing outside of her bedroom. He could be in bed, with her, every night. Nobody could hurt her if he was around right?

A french fry nailed him in the forehead, and he snapped his attention away from Kagome's boobs to her face.

"What's the matter with you?" She asked. "You've been staring at my chest for way longer than is normal for you. Do you need glasses or something?"

Inuyasha had made his decision, and he wasn't to be distracted. "Are you done?" He said, motioning to her plate.

"Uh, yeah."

"Then let's get out of here."


	16. Chapter 16

**Where We Learned Something About Inuyasha**

Kagome stared at Inuyasha in surprise. He seemed different all of the sudden. Had he just asked her to get out of here? As in, _get out of here_ get out of here? She decided to play it safe.

"And go where?" She asked innocently.

Inuyasha wasn't fooled.

"Anywhere you like," He responded, his brown eyes suddenly looking a little darker than usual. Kagome got a little nervous. Inuyasha must have scented it, because his face fell a little.

"You're scared of me?" He asked, looking a little hurt.

"No, it's just…"

"You don't want to get out of here."

"It's not that, it's just…."

"I get it Kagome."

"I don't mean anything by it…."

"Kagome, forget I asked."

"It's just that….."

"Pretend I didn't say anything."

"Let's get out of here is usually code for…"

"You don't have to explain it to me-"

"Let's go have sex!"

Kagome delivered the last line with slightly more volume than she intended to. Inuyasha laughed.

"Is that an invitation?" He said, waggling his eyebrows.

"NO!" Kagome said. "I just didn't know if that's what you meant when you said let's get out of here."

"You didn't know if I meant let's get out of here?"

"Yeah," Kagome said, lowering her voice, "Like were you asking me to leave with you and like...go to a bookstore or something, or were you asking me to leave with you to go back to your place and…. _do_ it?"

"You sure do know how to ruin a moment." Inuyasha said, smiling a little proudly.

"So which is it?" Kagome pressed on.

"Woman, you think I'm going to proposition you in the back of a diner?" The hanyou puffed himself up indignantly. "I'm way smoother than that."

"Oh-ho," Kagome said, laughing. "So you're saying you had no intention of taking me back to your place for some...pootie?"

"Pootie! What the hell does that mean?"

"You're not answering my question."

"I don't know. Maybe I didn't intend to at first, but now that pootie's on the table…"

"Be serious."

"About what? I forgot what you asked me. All I can think about it pootie."

"I asked you if you…..well now it seems weird to just say it out loud." Kagome sucked on the end of her fork thoughtfully. "Maybe I did ruin the moment. You were starting to get all sexy."

"You thought I was sexy?"

"Oh yeah."

"Am I sexy right now?"

"Not sure. Can you say it again?"

Inuyasha leaned over the table and gave her a comically smoldering gaze, and Kagome laughed so hard he never even got a chance to say the line. When she calmed down, he straightened up.

"Okay, I'm not trying to pick you up. But I am saying that you might not be able to go home if my brother and your roommate are knocking boots. I'd rather you stay with me than wander off on your own. So...would you like to come back to my place?"

"I thought you didn't have a place."

"What gave you that idea?"

"You told me you lived at the gym. Also you've been squatting at my place for weeks."

"Oh yeah. Sometimes I stay in a room in the dorms to help out with the kids, but I do have my own apartment. I don't use it too often though."

"Ah."  
"So do you want to go?"

"For...sexy time?"

"No!" Inuyasha said too quickly, and Kagome quirked a brow at him. "I mean...I'm not _assuming_ anything."

"Sounds like you are."

"What if we make a deal?"

"What kind of deal?"

"I won't make any moves on you. If you are up for...any funny business...you'll have to make it very clear to me that's what you want. Otherwise we'll just play monopoly or something."

"Can we just watch TV? Monopoly sounds boring."

"Sure."

"And define making it clear it's what I want? How do guys know when girls want to sleep with them?"

"Uh, just take your clothes off."

"That's almost insultingly simple."

Inuyasha shrugged, unconcerned. "It's all we really need."

Kagome excused herself to go to the bathroom while Inuyasha paid the bill. When she returned, smelling strongly of scented soap, her quirked an eyebrow at her. She shrugged lamely.

"Soap spilled on me." She explained, showing him a dark stain on her skirt.

Although the soap had an unusually strong smell, Inuyasha didn't mind it on the ride over to his apartment. If Kagome was thinking about what he suspected she was thinking about, her scent would be distracting. She was quiet in the car, as was he. He hated to admit to himself how nervous he was, and glad as hell that she couldn't smell _his_ emotions.

Inuyasha's apartment was in the cool part of town, next to the brewery that had popped up a few years back. It was a small walkup with exposed brick and a fireplace. He figured Kagome would like it. It had a real masculine feel. It was all brick and leather and wood. It smelled like cinnamon.

"I love it!" She said, scanning the loft-style space, which held a kitchen near the entryway, a living room with a big picture window, and what looked like a bedroom door to the left. The kitchen featured stainless steel appliances. "I can't believe you never stay here."

"Just not lately," Inuyasha said nonchalantly, trying not to eye Kagome's legs too much as she bent down to pull off her combat boots. She hadn't taken her jacket off so her efforts were somewhat constrained.

"Yeah, what's with that?" She asked, "Why would you -oof!"

Kagome tugged too hard on a stubborn boot and it came flying off, sending her reeling backwards. Inuyasha grabbed her before she hit the ground, chuckling. She looked up into his dark eyes.

"Inuyasha?"

"Mmmmhh?" His eyes were on her chest again.

"Could you drop your spell for me?"

That got his attention. He looked up into her face for a moment, before sighing. The air grew hazy for a few moments and then a kind of pressure released, and Inuyasha's black ponytail turned silvery white, and his dark eyes turned golden.

Kagome's eyes widened, and Inuyasha began inwardly cursing that strong-smelling soap. Maybe he could get her out of that wet skirt and into some of his sweatpants? That way he could smell her properly and see what she was thinking, more or less.

Kagome's hands reached up to grasp his ears, he smiled ruefully and set her down.

"Uh, don't take this the wrong way, but don't do that," He said apologetically.

"Why not?" Kagome looked a little dazed, and he could tell she was only half listening. Her eyes were traveling over his body.

"It'd be like...rubbing my ears is as good as taking your clothes off." Inuyasha explained.

"Oh!" Kagome flushed a little bit, and Inuyasha had to stifle a growl. God, he wanted her. She was interested, he could tell. But what kind of jerk would he be to make a move now? And what if he was wrong? He felt the loss of a proper scent on her like a blind spot.

Kagome didn't seem to concerned by his inner turmoil. While he was battling with himself, she casually sidled up to slip her hands around his waist. Without even thinking about it, he returned the gesture. They stood immobile for a few moments, looking at each other. Kagome's heart was racing, but she stayed close.

"Uh, Kagome?" Inuyasha asked, deciding that just going for it might be a bad idea.

"Yeah?" She responded, her gaze dropping to his neck.

"I know I said I wouldn't make a move, but…. _fuck,"_ He leaned his forehead on hers, "Can I at least kiss you?"

"Okay," Kagome whispered, and tilted her face up just a fraction, enough for Inuyasha to drop his lips to hers.

The kiss started out chaste enough, but Kagome's lips soon parted in silent invitation, and Inuyasha stroked her tongue with his. He growled in pleasure when her hands slid up his abdomen to wrap around his neck. He stepped forward so that their bodies touched, and wrapped his arms tightly around her as he pulled and tasted and nibbled at her lips, eliciting soft moans.

Inuyasha broke contact with her mouth in order to bring his own lips to her neck, just behind her earlobe. Oh, she _liked_ that. He suckled and nibbled that spot, listening to her gasps and squeals. Her hands slipped down to clutch as the front of his T-shirt. She whispered his name, and shifted her hips as if searching for his.

Of course that's when she found his erection.

They both stilled when she came into contact with it. Inuyasha kept his face buried in her neck. _Shit shit shit shit._

"Inuyasha?" She asked.

"Mmm-hmmm?" He responded, figuring he was either about to get laid (finally) or about to get pummeled into the ground and zapped.

"Is something wrong?"

Inuyasha leaned back to look at her. When she saw his face, she giggled a little bit. "Look at you! What's the matter?"

How could he answer to that? Suddenly he felt like he was standing on the edge of a cliff, not sure if he wanted to go over or not. Her signals were confusing him. She giggled again.

"Are you nervous about this?" She asked, and her hand encircled his erection. Inuyasha almost jumped at the shock of it, but when she squeezed lightly, he growled again in pleasure. "Oh, sweet baby," She murmured. "Is this your first time?" She ran her hand up and down his shaft.

Inuyasha was having trouble focusing his thoughts with her hand pumping him like that. She smiled wickedly at him, and he began to grow slightly uneasy even as he got harder in her hand. She released him and stepped back.

"What are you waiting for?" She asked. "I'm right here."

She hadn't even taken her jacket off. And she was looking at him as if she wanted to...challenge him? The feeling of standing on a cliff returned. Was this how human females initiated mating? She had realized he'd never done this before….why wasn't she asking any more questions? The Kagome he knew would be...well, she'd be talking right through all of this! Inuyasha's eyes narrowed, and he breathed in deeply.

There was no sign of Kagome's natural scent. Just the sickly smell of scented soap, but even that smell was stronger than any hand soap had a right to be.

Kagome backed up a few steps, a steely glint in her eye.

"What are you doing?" Inuyasha said slowly.

"Inu-baby!" She said, pretending to pout. "Don't you want me?" She unbuttoned the crisp white shirt she was wearing and let it slip to the floor. Inuyasha barely looked at her; his eyes were on the jacket and shirt lying on the floor. The tiniest breath of a scent wafted up to him, it was…

Inuyasha lunged forward and grabbed the pile of clothes. He shook the shirt out of the jacket and turned it around. The scent hit him again, but this time he didn't need it. The stain was easy enough to red. Red. Red as in blood.

Kagome had turned, but Inuyasha was too fast for her. He reached out and snatched an ankle as she tried to run away, bringing her crashing to the floor. He dragged her up underneath him and snarled into her face, fangs longer than usual.

" _Where is she?"_ He spat into the face of the imposter. The fake Kagome only grinned as her visage faded, replaced by wide, red eyes and a pert mouth.

"I don't know who she was but she's probably dead by now," the red-eyed woman said silkily, "as you will be soon. Naraku is watching you, and he's learned about where you work, _Sensei._ " With the briefest of movements, the woman flicked a feather into the air and disappeared. Inuyasha didn't wait to see where she had gone. He bolted out the door, leaving it wide open, and ran as fast as he could back to the diner where he'd last seen _his_ Kagome.


	17. Chapter 17

**Back at the House….**

As soon as she hung up after speaking to Mr. Taisho, Rin dashed up the stairs and down the hall to her room. She stopped in the hall bathroom to scrub her teeth and reapply her fading makeup. She fluffed her brown hair up and smeared some lotion she'd stolen from Kagome on her arms. It was peach flavored.

Satisfied that she'd primped herself up enough, she made for her room and her sorely neglected closet. What should she wear? She dithered over her underwear drawer. Would Mr. Taisho be seeing her underwear tonight? Would she be seeing his? Did she have any condoms? Oh, Jesus. That was another thing she'd have to steal from Kagome's room, should the occasion arise.

Rin changed into some fresh underwear, not her _sexiest_ pair, but something cuter than what she'd been wearing. She traded her baggy sweatpants for some tight yoga pants and pulled her favorite blouse over her head, one that showed more cleavage than she normally wanted. She didn't bother with an undershirt, even though the blouse had been loved into slight transparency.

A few short raps on the door told Rin her time was up, so she took one quick glance in the mirror, was only partially satisfied, and went back downstairs to let her gentleman caller in the house.

She pulled the door open and caught her breath. He was so gorgeous. Standing there, long black hair out of his characteristic ponytail, cascading down his back. He was wearing a well-fitting suit, but he'd taken off the jacket and tie. His button-down shirt was open at the collar. He had a sort of harried businessman look about him. Suddenly Rin felt very, very stupid for wearing yoga pants. Maybe she should have put on a dress or something….

"Ms. Rin?" Mr. Taisho said softly. Rin realized she'd been standing in the doorway and quickly stepped aside to let him him.

"Thanks so much for coming, Mr. Taisho." She said.

"Shouldn't we….go?" He asked, looking down at her bare feet. "You may need your coat. It's chilly outside."

"Oh no! I'm so sorry!" Rin blathered, "Kagome just texted me. She's fine. She just went to get dinner."

"I see," said Mr. Taisho, smiling. Rin smiled back at him, trying not to laugh. The jig was up, apparently.

"Would you care to stay?" She asked. "I made some cider and there's a chicken pot pie in the oven."

Mr. Taisho hesitated. His eyes were bright, but guarded.

"Would you like me to stay?" He asked.

"Very much," Rin replied, feeling her heart rate quicken.

Mr. Taisho looked keenly at her, as though he could hear her heart beat. Which he probably could. He sighed.

"Rin, I'm sorry." He said.

"For what?" Rin asked, not sure where he was going with the apology.

"For this," Mr. Taisho said, just before he leaned down to kiss her.

Rin was so shocked she didn't immediately respond. Feeling her stiffness, Mr. Taisho released her and stepped back, looking rueful. "I'm sorry," He said again, and this time it sounded like a real apology.

"No," Rin said, eyes wide. "Don't apologize." She could still feel his lips on hers. She wanted him to kiss her again.

Mr. Taisho ran his fingers through his long hair, looking more and more agitated.

"I'm sorry," He said for a third time, "But I can't do this."

"What do you mean?" Rin asked.

"I'm not human, Rin." He said, giving her a flat look.

"I know."

"I'm a demon."

"I know."

"And being around me is...dangerous."

"I know."

"I don't want you to get hurt, and if we...if I mark you in any way, you'll just become a target. I had to warn Inuyasha off of Kagome for the same reason."

Rin backed up out of the foyer and motioned for Mr. Taisho to follow her to the den, where they sat. On separate couches.

"Can I just ask you one thing?" She said, summoning up her courage.

"Yes."

"Have I met you before?"

There was a long pause. Mr. Taisho didn't look over at her. Eventually he sniffed a little bit and said,

"You said you had cider?"

"Yes." Rin said, disappointed. "Would you like some?"

"Yes, thank you." Mr. Taisho said.

"Are you going to answer my question?"

"Yes. But I would like some cider first."

Rin got up and went to the kitchen. While she was getting two glasses of cider ready she heard Mr. Taisho's phone ring. He was having a terse conversation with someone. He'd hung up by the time she came back into the room with the glasses.

"Here," She said. "Take your time. Kagome's getting dinner, and she won't come in unless the porch light is out."

Mr. Taisho smiled around his cider, and Rin's face reddened a little bit.

"Inuyasha is with her, apparently." He said.

"At the diner?"

"That's what it sounded like. I just talked to him."

"How did he find her? She said he acted like he didn't want to see her today."

"I believe I mentioned earlier that I had to tell him to stay away from her."

"Oh….oh. So I was right." Rin said, taking a sip of her cider. She was going to need to eat soon if she kept drinking her own spiked cider.

"About what?"

"Well I told her today that I thought he was crazy about her. She was confused at how he was acting but now it makes sense. He was disappointed."

"Yes. His instincts towards her are very strong, and I'm afraid I didn't give him very much guidance on that subject when he was younger. He's more or less at the mercy of them now."

"His instincts? Are you saying he's in love with her?"

"Humans call it love. I suppose it's the same thing. For us, for demons, mating is governed by strong instincts. I didn't know if Inuyasha would experience it fully because his mother was human, but his demon blood is very strong for a hanyou. I should have recognized the signs."

"And are you also subject to these...instincts?" Rin asked, trying to calm down her thundering heart.

Mr. Taisho looked up into her eyes. After a long, intense stare, he said,

"Yes."

Rin felt a shiver go down her spine. The implication was clear. But how would he proceed? He'd already mentioned that he wanted to shield her from involvement with him.

"You do know me." He continued, breaking her out of the moment. She looked up at him in shock.

"I do?"

"I knew you when you were very small." He said, looking down at his cider. "I didn't know if you would remember."

"It was the foster home, wasn't it? I was six."

"You were very small." He repeated.

"And those boys had…..I was in the the woods."

"Yes."

"I don't remember much, but as soon as I saw you...I remembered you. You were there?"

"I was there."

"Can you….can you tell me what happened? Sometimes I have nightmares, but I don't even remember what I'm so afraid of."

Mr. Taisho shifted in his seat, almost as though he were in pain.

"I don't want to tell you," He admitted finally. "I'm glad you don't remember."

"But why were you there?" Rin pressed. "What did you do?"

There was a long pause. Mr. Taisho looked right at her.

"I killed them."

Rin's mouth fell open.

"Those boys?"

"Yes. I chased them off and got you to safety. But later, I tracked them. Each one. And I killed them."

Rin shuddered, but didn't say anything.

"As I told you before, I am not human. And I am no hero."

"There was a sword." Rin said. "Tell me about the sword."

"Tenseiga." Mr. Taisho replied. "Tenseiga brought you back to life."

"I was dead?"

"You were dead."

"But why were you there at all? Was it coincidence?" Rin asked, confused.

"No, it was your spiritual power. It called out in your distress, much like you've seen Kagome's doing. I felt it."

Rin considered this new information. She had thought of that night many times, but had never been able to piece together what had happened. She'd been in her foster home, and it had been snowing outside. She'd gotten out of bed and snuck out to play in the snow in the woods behind the home, where she'd found a group of older boys playing around a bonfire they'd lit. She remembered hoping they'd let her play around the fire too, before things got fuzzy in her brain. She remembered being hit in the head with a rock, and blood running down her face. And she remembered a dog, a giant white dog. Darkness, and then light. Being carried in strong arms. She remembered golden eyes, and stripes. Magenta stripes. Silver hair.

"They beat me." She said simply.

"They beat you to death." Mr. Taisho sounded disgusted.

"But why?"

"Creatures don't always need a reason to kill. This is something humans and demons have in common."

"You saved me."

"I did."

"Did you know who I was when you called me to work at the school?"

"Not quite. Miroku reported to me that there was a miko with a gift for working with plants in the area. I suspected it might be you, but I wasn't sure."

"But you recognized me," Rin said confidently. Mr. Taisho laughed.

"I could tell that you recognized _me_ ," He said smiling.

Rin smiled back at him, feeling warmth spread all through her.

"I'm glad you found me," She whispered.

"It would have been better for you if I hadn't." Mr. Taisho said tightly. He was tense again. Rin looked up.

"What makes you say that? Is your world so dangerous? You know I...you know I wouldn't care."

"I know you wouldn't care. But I care."

"You want to be with me too, then." Rin said, feeling bold.

"Rin, I'm not immune….you're a very attractive girl…"

"It's more than that. It's your instincts too. Like Inuyasha, you said."

"It wouldn't do any good…" Mr. Taisho got up as if to leave. Rin considered getting angry, following him, or forcing his hand somehow. Obviously he was avoiding an entanglement with her for her own good, which irked her. Didn't she have a say? She could grab him, kiss him, tear his clothes off (or tear her own clothes off, while she was at it) but when she considered any of that, it all felt a little beneath her. Begging wasn't her style.

So she let him get up. She took his cup, like a good hostess. She followed him sedately to the foyer and stood by while he hesitated at the door, rubbing the his neck. His back was to her, and his shoulders were tense. She didn't reach out to him. He'd made his choice and she couldn't really fault him for it.

These were the pious thoughts running through her head when Mr. Taisho abruptly turned around, with a sound like a growl, and lifted her bodily from the floor. His lips found hers and this time, Rin wasted no time in kissing him back.

Sesshomaru knew it was wrong. He had lectured Inuyasha thoroughly on how wrong it was. He'd held himself up as an example of restraint. He was the biggest kind of hypocrite.

But right now he didn't care. With Rin's body pressed against his, his concealment spell fizzled into nothingness. Her arms tangled in his hair as she wound herself around his neck. From the moment she'd opened the door, he'd been barely able to control himself. She was so inviting, so warm, so sexy. There was something dignified about her, and her calm silence when he'd tried to leave her had undone him.

Just one kiss, he'd told himself. Just a lingering kiss, something to hold in his memory as he left her. But her response was so eager it boiled his blood. His one kiss turned into two, into three, into many kisses that melted into one another as their mouths pulled and tasted, as she moaned and he groaned.

Sesshomaru hooked his clawed hand into the crook of Rin's knee to bring her leg around his waist, pressing her up against the wall of her foyer. She pulled his shirttail out to scrape her blunt nails against the skin of his back.

" _Fuck me_ ," She breathed into his pointed ear. "Take me upstairs and fuck me, Sesshomaru."

Sesshomaru left off kissing her neck long enough to groan in frustration. "It's forever, Rin." He said roughly, "If I fuck you now it'll be forever. Dog demons mate for life."

Rin didn't answer, but she pulled his face down for another sound kiss, and Sesshomaru hiked her other leg up so that he could carry her upstairs. It was no trouble finding her room. By the time he rolled her down onto her bed, she'd gotten his shirt off (it was probably lying on the stairs somewhere) and he'd put a few tears into her pants with his claws. She didn't seem to mind.

Sesshomaru enjoyed the intoxicating quality of her scent. She ran her hands down the front of his body, tracing his stripes with her fingers, then bringing her head up to trace them with her lips. Sesshomaru rolled onto his back to give her more access. She straddled him and he reached up to pull her shirt of. She leaned down to kiss his neck and he growled. Rin chuckled a little bit; he could hear her smile into his neck.

"I love that sound you make," she murmured, kissing her way up his neck. She shifted so that her core brushed against his erection, wringing another growl out of him. His hands gripped her hips.

"Rin," Sesshomaru ground out, "Are you sure?"

Rin propped herself up on her hands and looked down at him, her brow slightly furrowed.

"Are _you_ sure?" She turned his question back on him. "Because I think I've made it perfectly clear what _I_ want."

Sesshomaru considered her. She was flushed, her hair fluffed around her head in a brunette halo. Her lips were swollen and red from his attentions, her tanned skin so deliciously soft under his hands. Her bra was black and no-nonsense, but he couldn't deny how much he wanted to see the breasts underneath. She was perfect, she was _his_. His match. He'd known it from the day he worked with her on the landscaping. And now she was sitting astride him, driving him crazy, and…

...waiting for him to say something. Shit.

"Come live with me," He choked out.

That was not what Rin had expected.

"What?" She said in surprise.

"If we go through with this, you'll be marked. Any demon would be able to tell you are mine."

"I kind of like that," Rin smiled.

"There's one in particular who is after me, after the school." Sesshomaru said, feeling that he was probably about to ruin the moment in a big way. But how could he mate with her and not tell her the truth? "If he finds you, he'll kill you to get to me."

Rin's face filled with emotion, and she leaned back down to kiss him some more. Only now, Sesshomaru was the one who did not respond. He gentled, putting his hands on her shoulders to press her back. "Rin," He said. Hearing himself say the words was all the reminder he needed. His desire ebbed away, turning into something deeper, warmer, and more serious. He loved this human woman. If he were to take her now, the risk to her was too great. "I can't," He said softly, "Gods Rin, I'm so sorry. I can't do this to you."

"You're not doing anything _to_ me," She said. "I want this as much as you do."

"No." Sesshomaru said firmly. "What kind of mate would I be if I could not keep you safe?"

"But you're saying you won't _be_ my mate!" Rin protested.

"I'm saying not yet." Sesshomaru promised.

"Sess-Sesshomaru," Rin said, tears forming in her eyes. " _My_ life isn't long like yours. I don't….I don't have the _time_ …"

Sesshomaru sat up against the headboard so that he could gather her up in his arms.

"Soon, soon" He said, cradling her body in his arms.

"Kiss me," She said, and he obliged. After a few heated minutes, Rin leaned back to press her forehead against his.

"So you don't want to go all the way tonight," She said.

"That's correct."

"But aren't there _other_ things we can do?" Rin asked with a slightly too-innocent look on her face. Sesshomaru grinned outright at her, but in that moment, her face suddenly fell, and her body turned warm and glowed ever-so-slightly.

"Rin, what is it?" He asked.

" _Kagome!"_ Rin gasped, flinching as though she was being hurt. "Something's happened to her!"

She leapt off the bed and scrambled down the stairs. "Come ON!" She yelled. "She's just at the diner down the street. We have to get moving!"

Sesshomaru asked no more questions. He grabbed a T-shirt from Rin's floor and joined her downstairs. She was flinging a coat on over what appeared to be his shirt. He followed her out the door, grabbing his keys, hoping no one would notice how Rin was glowing on the way to the diner.


	18. Chapter 18

**They Must Have Pretended to be Family**

Inuyasha was frantic. He didn't bother with his car, choosing rather to leap over building, trusting the dark night to keep him hidden. He hadn't traveled like this in years. Decades, even. His heart thumped against his chest, and he felt out of breath and terrified. What if she was dead? How could he have not recognized an imposter? How could he be so single-minded and stupid?

His heart leapt into his throat as soon as the diner came into view. There were several police cars and a fire truck parked outside it. Where was the ambulance? Was she already gone? He whined in panic and increased his pace, adjusting in mid-air so that he would land in front of the diner when...WHAM.

He was hit by a streak of silver and together they slammed into the nearest rooftop, shattering some brick along the way. Inuyasha gasped and wrenched himself out of his brother's grasp.

"What the fuck!? I have to get down there...Kagome!" He cried and made as if to leap off of the roof again. Sesshomaru caught him around the waist and pinned him again.

"Control yourself, brother," Came his icy command. "Your woman is safe. She is at the hospital with Rin, and I am here to make sure you are calm enough so that we can go back to them."

"You left them ALONE?" Inuyasha roared. "Naraku will kill them, we have to get back!"

"Naraku?" Sesshomaru said, "He's behind this!"

"Which hospital? Inuyasha said."

"I'll take you, but you have to calm down enough to conceal yourself. You look like a full demon!" Sesshomaru gestured to Inuyasha, who only just realized that his fangs had grown beyond his lips. He took a few deeps breaths.

"Tell me where they are," He said, trying to calm himself, "And then go. They aren't safe alone. Tell Kagome I'm coming."

"Saint Edith's" Sesshomaru said, before re-establishing his own spell and disappearing into the night air.

Kagome had just been screaming. She could feel the roughness of it in the back of her throat. There was a metallic taste, like blood, in her mouth. She couldn't open her eyes. She had just been screaming...because someone had sliced her, with sharp knives, all over. She was naked, covered in blood. Someone had walked out of the bathroom wearing her boots.

People were talking in soft voices beside her. She must be lying down, but she wasn't sure. She couldn't feel much. She felt warmth, and soft light illuminated her eyelids. She heard beeping sounds. _I must be at a hospital,_ she thought.

After a few moments, Kagome felt it might be a good idea to open her eyes. The first blink made her rethink this decision, but the deed was done. She blinked a few tears away, feeling kind of puffy and scratchy, and attempted to focus on what she saw.

Rin was curled in a chair by the hospital bed. She was dressed in yoga pants and a man's shirt. She didn't see Kagome because her knees were drawn up and her head was down. A tall, lean man knelt beside Rin's chair, stroking her hair with a long-fingered hand.

"Mr. Taisho?" Kagome croaked, surprised enough to try to speak.

The man in question turned and stood as Rin's head snapped up. Kagome stared at him, not taking her eyes off of him even as Rin came forward to grab her hand where it lay on the scratchy blankets. "Uhhhh," She said, after a few moments of silence. "Why are you wearing my shirt?"

Inuyasha snuck past the nurse's station and made his way to Kagome's room, following her scent. When he arrived, he saw that the door was ajar, and peeked in. Sesshomaru was standing in front of Kagome's bed, with his hand on Rin's shoulder. Rin was crouched over Kagome, hugging her friend for all she was worth. Inuyasha breathed a sigh a relief when he saw Kagome's arms move to encircle Rin. She must be okay.

"Kagome," he said roughly, and made his way forward to her. Rin pulled back and allowed Inuyasha to move in closer to Kagome's bed.

His girl was pale, and she was patched up in various places. He could still smell blood on her, and he could tell that she had bled a lot. Seeing her smiling wanly at him from her bed was gut wrenching. He felt shame burning in the pit of his stomach. "I'm so sorry," He choked out, taking her hand and bending over to press his face into it. He inhaled her scent, trying to calm himself. Kagome stroked the top of his head with her other hand, murmuring softly to him.

"It's okay, it's okay. I'm here now."

Inuyasha looked up.

"Are you really okay?" He asked.

"I think so. I'm still alive. But what happened?"

"Baby," Inuyasha sighed, "It's kind of a long story. And you're sleepy; I can tell."

Kagome's eyes widened a little bit and she smiled.

"Baby," She repeated softly. "Since when are you calling me baby?"

"Er, since I was afraid you were dead?" Inuyasha supplied, not so eloquently. "Makes a guy feel more sentimental."

"So I'm your baby now?"

"You're...you're something now."

"You don't know what I am?" Kagome said, before yawning. Inuyasha took the opportunity to help her ease back onto her pillows, aware of Rin and Sesshomaru, who were watching the whole exchange. "I'm Kagome," Kagome said drowsily. "I'm your Kagome. I'm everybody's Kagome. I'm sleepy. I'm in love with you." She slipped the last part out before another yawn, not seeming to notice what she'd said, and closed her eyes.

Inuyasha watched her until her breathing told him she was asleep. He felt so guilty, so ashamed at the thought of what he had given over to the imposter who had impersonated Kagome. He'd kissed her, fondled her a little bit. She'd _touched_ him. Those were all things he wanted to share with Kagome. He'd wasted them. He wanted to take a shower, wash himself of every trace of the unknown woman's strange scent. Now that he could smell Kagome's warm, pleasing scent again, he was astonished that he could have been fooled so easily.

Kagome's breath was shallow, but steady. Her cheeks were pale, but he would see her blush again, he was sure.

Once Inuyasha was satisfied that Kagome would recover, he was free to notice other things besides Kagome. Like the soft, teal _This is What a Feminist Looks Like_ T-shirt his brother was wearing. Like the over-sized work shirt Rin was sporting. Like the fact that they smelled like each other. He fixed Sesshomaru with his own icy glare.

"You sick fuck." He said. Sesshomaru opened his mouth to speak, but Inuyasha, in a gesture of uncharacteristic calm and dignity, simply held a hand up. "You bastard," He continued, more quietly now. "I can't believe you'd be such a fucking hypocrite."

"Inuyasha," Rin began, stepping forward, but he simply shook his head.

"I'd like to be alone with Kagome," He said to her, then fixed his gaze on the taiyukai. "Go get tetsusaiga. And call Shippo. I think Naraku knows where the school is."

Sesshomaru nodded, and he and Rin left the room. Inuyasha stepped aside to let them pass, then settled on the chair next to Kagome's bed. She mumbled in her sleep a little bit, but didn't wake up. He reached over to pull a few stray locks of hair away from her face.

"I'm in love with you too," He whispered to her as she slept.


	19. Chapter 19

**It's Kind of Like Twilight, but Better**

The waiting room where Rin sat had that hushed, dimly-lit, middle-of-the-night quality. Sesshomaru was in the corner, speaking quietly on his cell phone. She observed him from across the room. Even wearing a woman's T-shirt, which fit very snugly, he was stunning. His concealment spell was back in place, and she missed the tell-tale signs of his lack of humanity.

A shiver ran through her. He wasn't _human._ She couldn't call him "otherworldy", because yukai belonged in the world as much as humans did, but it was disconcerting to really consider how stark their differences were. She looked down at herself, at the puncture marks in her yoga pants, at her blunted nails and rough hands. She considered her chest, sadly disguised under Sesshomaru's shirt. Surely someone as beautiful as he wouldn't be interested in someone as common and plain as she was?

Rin dwelled, experimentally, on Sesshomaru's demon nature. Should it frighten her? Did it? She let her mind drift back to all the moments she'd glimpsed it, from the day he rolled up his sleeves to help her outside and she'd spotted what she had thought were tattoos winding up his arms.

He moved with a grace that spoke also of power. His face was nearly always schooled into cool detachment. His eyes were always bright, always keen, and he seemed to watch her whenever he was near. From the beginning, Rin had desired him. Something about his energy made her feel safe. Perhaps that was wrong of her, to feel safe around someone so dangerous, but it was true. She wondered if she felt that way because when she was with Sesshomaru, she was in the presence of someone who had pulled her straight from death.

Death. That was another concern. Sesshomaru had lived for many years, according to Inuyasha, and would probably live for many generations past the time she would. If she were to have any children, they would be hanyou like Inuyasha. They'd all outlive her by hundreds, if not thousands, of years. She would grow old and die, and then what would happen? Would Sesshomaru find another woman? Perhaps a demon woman, who could share his lifespan? Rin cringed inwardly at the thought, and grimaced.

"What's wrong?" A cool voice broke into her thoughts as Sesshomaru sat back down beside her.

"That's fun," Rin said, suddenly in a slightly sour mood. "You can smell when I'm upset."

"I don't need a sense of smell to tell you're upset when you pull faces I can see from across the room," Sesshomaru pointed out. "Are you worried for your friend?"

"Yes," Rin said, "But it's not just that. How does...how does _this_ work now?" She gestured between the two of them. Sesshomaru settled back in his seat.

"Hnnn," He said, as if thinking. "How would you like it to work now?"

"That's not fair," Rin said. "I asked you first."

Sesshomaru allowed her a small smile.

"I told you before; it is not safe for us to be together until I have dealt with the threat at hand."

"But?" Rin supplied, seeing the doubtful look on Sesshomaru's face.

"But it seems my willpower is curiously weak where you are concerned." Without looking at her, Sesshomaru reached out and took her hand, running his thumb along her knuckles. Rin felt that there wasn't anything more to say. She pulled her legs up into her chair so she could lean close enough to kiss Sesshomaru softly on the cheek and lay her head on his shoulder. He rested his head on top of hers. They sat for a few moments of silence, before Inuyasha crept out of Kagome's hospital room and made his way towards them, rolling his eyes when he saw their intimate position. Sesshomaru lifted his head up for his brother but Rin didn't move.

"Did you call Shippo?" Inuyasha asked curtly, pointedly not looking at Rin.

"Yes. And I have the guards on alert. So far there have been no issues. Are you going to tell us what happened now?"

"It was Naraku."

Rin felt Sesshomaru stiffen, then he turned his head towards her.

"Rin, perhaps you could sit with Kagome for a few minutes. We'll stay outside the door.

Rin knew she was being dismissed, but she was too sleepy to care. It was nearly three in the morning. She allowed herself to be ushered into Kagome's room, where she lay down on the small couch next to the hospital bed. Sesshomaru checked the lock on the window for some reason before pulling a spare blanket over her and going outside to talk to his brother.

"So he is back," Sesshomaru said simply. "You saw him?"

"Not exactly", Inuyasha replied, peering through the crack in the door where he could see Kagome and Rin sleeping. "I saw someone who said she worked for him."

"Where?"

"Uh, at my place."

"What? You left Kagome at the diner?"

"Shut the fuck up! I feel bad enough about it already. She went to the bathroom at the diner and came out smelling different, but she said it was because she'd spilled soap. We went back to my place and…"

"Oh my god….you didn't mate with her did you?" Asked Sesshomaru, sounding more alarmed than Inuyasha had ever heard him.

"Fuck no! I realized it wasn't Kagome, and that was when she told me she worked for Naraku. She said he knows where I work, so I'm assuming he's figured out about the school. God, why are you so upset? You're white as a fucking sheet!"

Sesshomaru grabbed the front of Inuyasha's shirt and snarled slightly.

"Swear to me, you didn't mate with her? You smell like something happened."

"I swear, okay? Stuff happened but...not that. Why are you so freaked out?"

Sesshomaru released him and leaned back against the wall.

"If you had mated her, she would be connected to you, even if it had happened when you thought she was Kagome. If she works for Naraku, that might even have been what he was after tonight."

"Connected to me?"

"Yes. Mating produces a bond. Mates share lifespans. They can sense one another. The bond is...profound. It is forged when two demons come together, and broken only by death."

The two dog demons stood in silence for a moment, before Inuyasha finally asked the question they were both thinking of.

"What about...when a demon and human come together?"

Sesshomaru sighed sadly and shook his head.

"I don't know, Inuyasha. I don't know."


	20. Chapter 20

**Experiences**

Kagome was released from the hospital in the morning. No one at the hospital, no doctors or nurses, had deigned to ask her what had happened to her. A few policemen had been by to ask her about the incident. She was able to tell them the truth-that she had gone into the bathroom where someone had attacked her and stolen her favorite outfit. However, she was so nervous while they were questioning her that she was sweating and stuttering over her story as though it were a lie. She kept worrying that suddenly she would completely lose her head and start yelling, "They're demons! Dog demons! Demons here, demons everywhere! It's a BIG SECRET DON'T TELL!"

None of that happened, though. If she seemed nervous, the officers probably put it down to the traumatic ordeal she'd been through (maybe the humiliation of losing her favorite pair of boots). They took some notes and left. Inuyasha had disappeared out the window as soon as they had arrived, and he slipped back in the moment they were gone.

"Figured it would be easier," He explained lamely when she looked askance at him as he climbed back over the couch. "I know more than you do and I wouldn't have wanted them to start asking questions."

"Uh-huh," Kagome said, not even sure why she was annoyed. Maybe because he boyfriend had started acting like Spiderman?

….Maybe because she had no idea if he was her boyfriend at all? How do you start that conversation? _Hey babe, I know you must be distracted because apparently someone is out to murder both of us, but are like dating or what?_

Rin and Sesshomaru had gone home early that morning. There was another budding relationship her attack may have ruined. Kagome pulled a wry face as Inuyasha helped her from the wheelchair into the car. Everything had been going so well, and now everything was a fucking mess and nobody knew where anybody stood anymore.

Inuyasha wasn't entirely sure if he should ignore the nearly visible dark cloud over his girl's head as he drove her away from the hospital. She'd been warm and fuzzy last night, sleepily affectionate and downright adorable. He supposed it must have been the pain meds. He had even crawled into bed with her for an hour or so when she showed signs of tossing and turning. She'd curled up against him, grabbing a fistfull of his shirt in a surprisingly strong hand, and fallen back asleep. Once or twice in her sleep she'd glowed a little bit, and Inuyasha had the unnerving sensation that he was like a chicken in a rotisserie cooker, but he stayed where he was until she woke, blinking blearily at him in the early morning light.

Now she was nervous and tense, her scent broadcasting shifting emotions. She looked as if she might cry.

Now, Inuyasha knew he wasn't the brightest of guys around, but he was no idiot, and Kagome wasn't exactly hard to read. She was clearly upset, and he knew she would want him to ask her about it so that she could tell him. But he resisted. He was nervous that she was upset with _him_ for some reason. Perhaps she had figured out what had happened at his apartment? He was only too happy to delay that conversation. Maybe something would distract her and she would forget to be mad at him.

So it wasn't until they were nearly at the school when Inuyasha had to say something. He could smell salt on the air and he realized Kagome was crying quietly in the seat next to him. _Shit shit shit shit._ He pulled the car over and reached for her hand. She pulled it out of his reach.

"Kagome, are you okay?" He said, feeling stupid. He knew she wasn't okay, but how else could he start?

"I'm fine."

"You're not fine, you're crying." Inuyasha pointed out. "What's going on?"

"I just...I just don't know anything anymore!" Kagome said wetly. "A few months ago I was a normal girl living a normal life trying to get a teaching job. Now I've got people trying to kill me and I'm ruining my roommates love life and I don't even know…." She sniffled.

"I'm sorry," Inuyasha said. "I wish I had….Sesshomaru didn't ask me when he hired you. I didn't know it would be this hard for you."

"It's not your fault. It's just a shock is all," Kagome said, still a little watery. "Sometimes I wish I could just be normal, you know? But then I realize...I was never really normal. I just didn't know it." She started crying in earnest, and Inuyasha leaned over awkwardly to try to embrace her. She allowed an arm around her shoulders.

"Kagome, I'm so sorry. It's my fault." He said. "This is all my fucking fault."

"No, it's not," Kagome murmured.

"Yes it is," Inuyasha went on, feeling that he had better do it now. "The demon who tried to kill you...she was after me."

There was a pause while Kagome surreptitiously wiped her nose on the hem of the scrubs she wore.

"I figured." She said. "She put on my clothes."

"Yeah, she had the ability to look like you. She didn't smell right, but I was too stupid to realize it."

"Did you….did you have sex with her?"

"No! No, no. No. No no no." Inuyasha said over and over again, pressing his face into her hair, trying to hide how it was burning in shame.

"But that's what she wanted, wasn't it?"

"...yeah."

"Because if you had sex, she would be connected to you."

Inuyasha sat up, giving her a piercing look. Kagome raised her eyebrows unapologetically.

"Yes." He answered.

"Because when demons mate, they are connected."

"Yes."

"So where does that leave us?"

Inuyasha knew there was a right answer to this question. He just wasn't quite sure what it was. So what to say?

"Kagome, I….I want to be with you." He stammered. She looked down, apparently unable to hold his gaze. Inuyasha felt a little hot around the collar himself, so he stared out of the window while waiting for her to speak. Finally, she did.

"If we had sex….would we be connected?"

Inuyasha shook his head sadly.

"I don't know, Kagome," He said. "Does it matter?"

"Doesn't it matter to you?"

"No." He said simply. Kagome bit her lip, thinking.

"What about the other women you had sex with. Did anything happen with them?"

Inuyasha stared at her, aghast. How was he supposed to answer that? A few moments ticked by, and Kagome pressed on. "I mean, obviously you've…" She said, but fell silent when Inuyasha abruptly started the car and pulled back out onto the road. "What is it?" She asked, but Inuyasha refused to speak. His face reddened and he felt that familiar burn of shame in the pit of his stomach. This time, though, he wasn't ashamed of what he had done. He was suddenly unbelievably embarrassed of what he _hadn't._


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N: I am so thrilled with the reviews! Keep reading and reviewing, and I'll keep posting. This one is super short but I promise a longer one this weekend!**

 **The Wrong Conclusion**

Kagome was mortified. She'd obviously said something that pissed Inuyasha off. He was driving like a madman...mad-demon? And his face was red. She ask him what was wrong but he wouldn't say anything. They had just been talking about having sex. What had she said? She'd asked him about his past sex life.

Oh. Oh shit.

 _Nobody_ liked talking about their exes. Obviously he'd had a bad relationship and she'd hit a nerve. Or maybe...ugh, what if he'd _had_ a demon mate and she'd died or something? Kagome shuddered a little bit. She would _not_ like to play second fiddle to a dead demoness who would always remain perfect in Inuyasha's mind. No _thank you._ Kagome looked down at her wrinkled scrubs and surreptitiously sniffed herself. She was sure she looked slightly better than road kill at the moment, and smelled like it too. She considered the only female demons she'd met-some of her fellow teachers at the school. Sure, they all had concealment spells which dulled their appearance down to a human level, but they were all uncommonly beautiful.

Kagome knew she wasn't going down a particularly productive path when it came to thought processes, but once she'd developed this imaginary competition for Inuyasha's affections, she couldn't stop dwelling on it. Why would Inuyasha be remotely interested in her when he could have the pick of his own kind? Sure, he was only half-demon but she had learned enough to recognize that his human side gave him a kind of scrappiness that almost elevated him above the level of an average demon. He could have any demoness he wanted; why was he barking up her tree? She was frail and clumsy and had below-average looks. She was supposed to have this tremendous pink power to fight evil demons, but apparently all that was required to circumvent that power was a swift blow to the head, like that demoness in the bathroom had done to her. So impressive.

By the time Inuyasha pulled into the parking lot of the school, both he and Kagome were thoroughly disgruntled and angry at one another, although neither one of them knew why. Kagome was mentally berating Inuyasha for leaving her for an imaginary glamorous demon-woman as she opened the car door and attempted to get out and stand up on her own, which turned out to be a bad idea. Her head swam and she barely had time to register the curse from Inuyasha's side of the car before he was there, holding her up with an arm around her waist.

"I've got you," He murmured so softly it was almost like a whisper. Kagome, who had some significant tunnel vision at this point and was having trouble telling up from down, felt it was in her best interest to lean on the hanyou as much as was possible. Inuyasha didn't stumble, but lifted her easily in his arms and kicked the car door shut. He hoisted Kagome up to a better position so she could wrap her arms around his neck.

The imposing imaginary sexy she-demon in Kagome's mind vanished as she laid her head on Inuyasha's shoulder and sighed. She considered herself to be a feminist, but whatever. It felt damn good to be carried and who the fuck cares?

"I'm not mad at you anymore," She mumbled into the collar of his T-shirt.

"Keh. I was the one who was mad at you," Inuyasha said grumpily, although his hold on her tightened.

"Why?" Kagome asked, as Inuyasha backed them into the doors of the school.

"I'll tell you later." He said simply.


	22. Chapter 22

**Warning: This chapter contains some lemon-adjacent content.**

 **Making Plans:**

Rin paced restlessly in the small dorm-style room. Sesshomaru had left her there with four guards outside the door. He'd gone off on some errand. Rin wasn't sure when he'd be back, although she hoped he would some and lay down with her.

On the way back from the hospital, Sesshomaru had told Rin as much of his history as he could fit into the drive. He'd told her about how he'd started sheltering hanyou children roughly six hundred years ago, after his father had been murdered in defense of his own hanyou son, Inuyasha. He'd told her of a village priestess who'd helped them, how she'd held a power similar to Kagome's, and how she had attracted the worst kind of person. He told her about this woman's death, Kikyo had been her name. How Inuyasha, who hadn't been much older than a teenager at the time, had left abruptly after her death, shredded by grief. How he, Inuyasha's only surviving family member, hadn't realized that his little brother had been in love.

Apparently Inuyasha had stayed away from Sesshomaru and the other children for years. Most of the original hanyou and part-demons Sesshomaru had taken in were grown now, and a few of them were teaching at the school. Others had moved on to live their own lives, now adept at blending into human society and able to mask their demonic auras.

Sesshomaru had told her of Naraku, the crazed hanyou who had sold his soul to evil demons for the power to get close to Kikyo. He'd murdered her, then become obsessed with obtaining the sacred jewel she had protected. However, Kikyo had instructed the jewel be burned with her body and Sesshomaru had seen to it himself that the jewel was destroyed with Lady Kikyo.

Rin had asked lots of questions when he was done. Where did he find the children? How long did it take them to grow up? Why didn't hey have parents? What was the sacred jewel and why was Naraku after it?

"The Shikon no Tama," Sesshomaru had said slowly, "was a sacred object formed by the merging of human and yukai souls, which battle inside of it. It is like a balance of good and evil, and can be influenced by the heart of the person possessing it. Naraku never explained to me why exactly he wanted it, but I knew that it would be unwise to allow it to fall into his hands. I burned it with Kikyo's body and made sure that there was nothing left of it. Perhaps that is why Naraku seeks me to this day. I robbed him of its power."

"But you said Naraku lusted after Kikyo. Why would he kill her?" Rin had asked.

"Because the demon part of him knew she was dangerous. Kikyo had a power similar to Kagome's….startlingly similar, now that I think about it. She could purify demons on contact." Sesshomaru said, looking thoughtful. "Rin," He'd said then, pulling into a parking spot behind the school. "How long have you known Kagome?"

"Since we were children. Why?"

"Do you know who her parents were?"

"Of course. I met them."

"They were from Japan?"

"Yeah. Can't you tell? Aren't you from Japan too?"

"I am, as are several of my students. It's been a long time since I was there." Sesshomaru had turned the car off then, rubbing his hand over his face in an uncharacteristic gesture of fatigue.

"You need rest," Rin had said, her voice a low.

"You need it more," Sesshomaru had responded. Rin tried not to sound too presumptuous as she replied.

"Why don't we go somewhere and...sleep?"

Sesshomaru's hand had still been covering his face but Rin saw a smile form. Then he sighed.

"Not yet," He said. "Right now, this building is the safest place around, due mostly to you." He gestured at the dormitory, which Rin could see clearly only because she'd been the one behind the magic that concealed it. "I want you to stay here. Get a shower, get some sleep. I have something I want to look into."

"Sesshomaru," Rin had said softly. "Don't….just come in with me, okay? You might not be human but you look terrible. Stay with me for a while."

Sesshomaru had taken her hand in his and brought it to his lips, like a gentleman. His golden eyes seared into hers as his lips lingered on back of her hand, her palm, her fingers.

"I'll come back," He had promised. "And when I do, we're going to lock the door and stay in that room for a very, very long time."

"That's what I want." Rin had said seriously.

"I'm going to give you everything you want," Sesshomaru had replied, without a trace of a smile, "And a few things you didn't even know you wanted."

Rin had shivered then, drawn in by his smoldering gaze. He seemed to be thinking the same thing she was, because his breathing grew heavier. The car seemed to heat up.

"HEY SESS! WHAT THE HELL...oh, oh God sorry!" Came a raucous voice from outside the car. Rin and Sesshomaru had snapped apart like they'd been zapped as Shippo rapped on the window, then pulled back abruptly once he realized what had been transpiring in the car. Sesshomaru opened the door and smoothly stepped around the car to help Rin out. "Uh...I was just about to ask what was going on…." Shippo jabbered, a little nervous at the stormy look on Sesshomaru's face.

"Nothing's going on at the moment," Sesshomaru replied. "Take Rin to one of the guest rooms and post at least four guards at the entrance. I trust you alerted everyone about the circumstances?"

"Yeah!" Shippo said. "We're on the lookout and we've got the kids inside and accounted for. Those who live with their parents...well we've sent some escorts to bring them and their parents in. So you're saying it really is Naraku?"

"It looks like that, but he may have been bluffing about knowing where we are."

Shippo shuddered a little bit. "But if he's not…"

"We have nothing to fear from that piece of scum," Sesshomaru had said. "If he comes here, he will learn what it is to fight with real demons."

So Shippo had walked Rin up to a private guest room in the dormitory, and left her there with the aforementioned guards outside. She'd showered and dressed in some clothes Shippo had arranged to have brought from her house (she privately shuddered at the thought of some random demon snooping around her all-too-human home). Now she knew she should rest, but she was keyed up with anticipation, hoping Sesshomaru would return soon. She knew he'd half-expected her to run screaming away from him once he unloaded his history on her, but she didn't feel like screaming. She still wanted him; if anything, she wanted him _more._ His sexy allure was only enhanced by the knowledge that he had spent the better part of his life caring for and protecting others- _children,_ no less.

She sat on the bed and planned out in her head what she would do when he came back to her. She wouldn't let him speak, that was easy enough. If he came in and started talking, she knew he'd try to talk her out of it. He was worried about the impact that having sex could have on her life. She hadn't asked him about his sexual past. If dog demons mated for life, did that mean he'd already mated somebody? Or was he a virgin?. No...no, obviously he'd mated someone at some point, because when they'd nearly had sex the night before he had really known was he was doing. Who was she? Was she dead?

Rin shook her head to clear it. Sesshomaru might have had a lover in his past, probably several, and it was a mystery to her how bonded he had been to any of them. There was no reason to mull over it. She was here now. She was going to have him, and keep him, for as long as her fragile human life would allow.

Rin shook her head again. Every other thought was a depressing one! To the task at hand-how best to seduce a dog demon? She established mentally that she would first kiss him at the door, as soon as he came in, and thus prevent him from trying to put her off any longer. Then she would remove her clothes. Or his? Yes, his first. Get him naked and on the bed, then strip for him..slowly. Don't let him touch. Don't let him get up.

Maybe she'd start with a blow job? Most of Rin's most satisfying sexual experiences had begun with a very, very excited man. Once she got naked and used her tongue even just a little bit, men were like putty in her hands. They tended to be more vocal, more appreciative of her efforts throughout the rest of the experience, and some even took the hint and returned the favor before the end.

Yes. That sounded like a good plan. Get him as soon as he came in, get him naked, suck him off (or almost off) and then see what he did next. He was such a buttoned up gentleman. How would he take it if she took that much control? She wanted to find out. Rin shifted a little bit...she was already a little excited. She glanced at the clock on the bedside table. She'd been waiting two hours. How long would he be?

Rin laughed out loud. What had Kagome said when they'd first talked about Sesshomaru? She bet his dick was a mile long. How long would he be indeed?

Kagome was almost recovered by the time Inuyasha got her through the school and out back to the dormitory building, which to her was like a big blur she couldn't quite focus on. Inuyasha navigated more or less by scent, and so he got them through the door and into the building just fine.

In the lobby, which was stately and beautiful, more like an old gentleman's club than a children's dormitory, Inuyasha set Kagome down on her feet, holding her tightly around the waist as she tested her balance.

"I'm okay, I'm okay," She said, aware of his tight grip on her. "I think I can stand on my own."

Inuyasha snorted and released her for long enough to let her teeter, then grasped her again. Kagome slumped into him, feeling dizzy.

"You're not one hundred percent yet," He murmured into her hair, "Let's get you in a room and…"

"In a _shower,"_ Kagome mumbled, then pinched Inuyasha when he snorted again in agreement.

"I just took Rin upstairs," Shippo said, bounding in with his usual excess of energy. "Sesshomaru had me post his guards up there. Why don't you go in there?"

Inuyasha nodded and picked Kagome up again. As they made their way up a grand, spiraling staircase, Kagome poked him lightly in the chest.

"What?" He asked.

"Uh, don't we want...our own room?" She asked, feeling genuinely nervous.

"Uh…" Inuyasha suddenly looked nervous too. Kagome mentally cursed. Perhaps it was too soon to ask. What if he was thinking about his exes still, and wasn't ready to move on to thinking about her?

His exes.

That demon _bitch._

Kagome scowled. If he thought she was going to wait idly by for him to get over some sulty demoness, dead no doubt in the line of some kind of duty, he had another thing coming. Maybe she'd had his kid too. Maybe one of these part-demon kids was part-Inuyasha. She thought of Shiori, a sweet, white-haired seventh-grader who did look a lot like a certain hanyou.

Was this some kind of _Sleepless in Seattle_ situation? Inuyasha, as a sexy and wounded widower, should have no trouble finding women. He probably had a trunk full of letters from women who wanted to be the perfect wife for him and mother to his sad little child….and somewhere in that bunch was Meg Ryan's letter and he'd read it and rush off to New York to meet her at the top of the Empire State Building and Kagome would be left as the third wheel to Sesshomaru and Rin's budding relationship.

 _Fuck that._ Kagome thought, stiffening in Inuyasha's arms. _I'll just_ _ **join**_ _Sesshomaru and Rin's relationship._ Sesshomaru was big guy. He could probably handle two women at once. And Kagome and Rin had already made out on _two_ separate occasions, only one of which could be put down to excess alcohol consumption.

Before she was really aware of it, Inuyasha was setting her down so he could open a door on the hallway. There were four, un-spell-concealed body guards dressed in black stationed along the corridor. She waved blearily at them, but they didn't move.

Inuyasha opened the door and was about to take a step back, presumably to help Kagome in the room, when a pair of slender arms reached out, snatched him into the room, and the door slammed shut.

A moment ticked by. Kagome blinked, stunned. She looked up at the face of the nearest guard, a burly guy with shaggy black hair and bright blue eyes. He blinked back at her, just as stunned.

 **Here's a question just for fun: Readers, what are your thoughts on yuri? Just curious. There's some potential here, but I'll avoid it if most of my readers aren't interested. I can always write another fic…...answer quickly and you may get another chapter before the weekend is out! Maybe even tonight...I've got the next one started already.**


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N: Thank you so much for your responses! I did experiment with some yuri, and I discovered that any Kagome/Rin yuri action ended up making Sesshomaru and Inuyasha look like a couple of chumps. It destroyed the central romances of the fic, so I decided not to go there (overtly). Perhaps I'll write a yuri pair into my next fic, in a way where it feels like a central part of the story and not just a sexy add-on. Thanks again for reviewing! Enjoy the following chapter.**

 **Stella**

 **An Unlikely Source**

"What the _fuck_?" Kagome said, before her knees gave way slightly and the guard had to lurch forward to grab her. She snorted. "Sorry, people are always having to grab me these days….apparently I'll never be able to stand on my own again."

"It's okay," The guard said, giving her a keen look. "You're fine." He smiled at her, all bright eyes and fangs, and Kagome felt a little faint again. This one was a looker, and he was looking at her like she was something he'd like to eat. He was holding her up by her arms, but now that she had steadied, one of his hands was free to rub up and down her arm in a gesture of intimacy. Intimacy this guy had definitely not earned. Kagome shrugged out of his grip.

Suddenly Inuyasha burst back through the door with a yell, face as red as his gym jacket.

"What the HELL RIN?" he shouted.

"I'm sorry! I thought you were Sesshomaru!" Rin gasped, standing on the threshold of the door, hands on her face.

"What happened?" Kagome asked, alarmed.

"She fucking kissed me!" Inuyasha shouted at full volume, "With...with her tongue and everything!" There was a tense pause as his words echoed throughout the corridor. Then Kagome howled with laughter. Inuyasha looked askance at her. "What the fuck is your problem?" He said grouchily.

"It's just…..it's…..it's funny!" Kagome snorted. "Jesus Christ. I'm so fucking tired." Tears started streaming out of her eyes and she wasn't sure if she was laughing anymore. Suddenly she felt like crying. Both Inuyasha and the blue-eyed guard stepped forward but Rin reached her first, taking her gently and steering her into the room. Kagome walked in obediently and flopped down onto the bed. She heard Rin dismissing the men outside, and she heard the door click shut, and then she was asleep.

Inuyasha eyed the guard who'd moved instinctively toward his girl when she'd started to cry. The guard, to his credit, eyed Inuyasha straight back.

"Who the fuck are you?" Inuyasha asked. The guard straightened up a little bit.

"Koga."

"I don't recognize you."

"Lord Sesshomaru hired me in the fall."

"What are you?" Inuyasha sized him up. "You're not a dog demon."

"Wolf. _Full_ wolf demon."

Inuyasha didn't miss the subtle insult.

"So you know who I am?" He asked, going for the tone of cool detachment he heard his brother use when speaking to people he felt were beneath him.

"I do, sir." Koga replied, eyes glittering.

"Then you know not to touch something that's _mine,_ " Inuyasha said pointedly. Koga grinned dangerously.

"All due respect, sir, but she didn't _smell_ like she was yours."

Inuyasha snatched the front of Koga's shirt and backed him up to the wall. They were at eye level with one another. Inuyasha's lip curled in a snarl.

"Just cause she don't _smell_ like it, wolf-boy, don't mean that she ain't," He snarled.

"Oh, that's exactly what it means," Koga said, "Or did your human mother forget to explain yukai mating to you? When canines mate their scents change. A mated scent on a woman is a signal to back off _._ That bitch is free and fucking _clear_ unless you can seal the deal with her. Before I do."

Inuyasha's rage was second only to his intense curiosity.

"But she's human," He said, trying and failing to still be intimidating.

"You never fucked a human before?" Koga said condescendingly. "It's fucking _amazing_. You know they're fertile every month? And when human females are fertile…" He leaned forward to whisper, "they're fuckin' _animals._ They'll tear your clothes off with their teeth."

"No," Inuyasha said, thinking in the back of his mind about what it would be like for Kagome to try to take his clothes off with her teeth. Wouldn't that just make her jaw sore after a while? "I mean the scent. The mating. It's the same for humans? We mate, we're bonded, like if she were a demoness?"

Koga looked thoughtful, and strangely sad.

"I don't think so," He replied. "I've been with human girls before. None of them are still around, if you're talking about the lifespan. Then again, I never tried to steal a woman who was with another demon."

"I can't believe you knew the answer to that and Sesshomaru didn't." Inuyasha said flatly, looking away.

"Well that's easy," Koga said, straightening his clothes. "I get around. Lord Sesshomaru? He's too prickly for a human woman. I'm sure he's never had one."

"You're saying you think my brother has fucked demon women?"

"I'm saying he's had a mate."

Inuyasha gaped at Koga.

"No."

"You think he's spent the last eight hundred years or so waiting for the right girl? How long have you known him, really?"

"He called me back here a few years ago. Before that, I hadn't been around in a while."

The two stood silently in the corridor, trying not to notice how the other guards were trying not to be too obvious in their eavesdropping. It wasn't working. Suddenly, Koga seemed to remember himself.

"What do you want with that girl?" He asked Inuyasha. "You don't just want to fuck her, do you?"

"No." Inuyasha said. "I want to make her my mate."

"Ah."

"But it sounds like...I can't do that."

Koga sighed.

"Demons and humans, bro," He said, clapping Inuyasha on the shoulder, "Different species. Don't mix."

Inuyasha twitched, then used Koga's offending hand as leverage, pulling the wolf demon up and over his shoulder to body slam him into the ground. The wooden floor splintered and cracked. The other guards straightened up and looked ahead as the hanyou, cool as a cucumber, proceeded down the hall. Koga lay in the floor, waiting for the feeling to come back to his legs.

Kagome woke up to the sound of Rin's voice. She was lying on the bed, pretty much on her face, still wearing the scrubs from the hospital. Rin was murmuring to someone at the door. As Kagome sat up, she shut the down and came over to her friend.

"How are you feeling?" She asked, offering Kagome a cup of water from the bedside table.

"Like I have moss growing on my teeth."

"Ew. Drink your water."

Kagome drank the whole class.

"Are you hungry?"

"Ugh, no." Kagome rubbed her stomach, feeling queasy at the mere mention of food. Rin clicked her tongue knowingly.

"That's your blood sugar. You need to eat. Inuyasha's going to bring us up some food."

"Inuyasha!" Kagome sat up a little straighter. "Why did you jump on Inuyasha?"

"I thought he was Sesshomaru!" Rin protested. "Don't kill me please."

"Whatever. I don't even know if I'm supposed to be jealous. He says he wants to be with me but the guy hasn't made a move yet. What am I supposed to do?"

"Take a shower?" Rin suggested. Kagome laughed.

"Do I smell that bad?"

"No, you just smell like a hospital. I had one earlier; it'll make you feel better. Come on."

Kagome stood up, then sat back down, cursing like a sailor.

"I can't fucking get up. I can fucking do a fucking god damned thing."

Rin laughed, and the sound eased Kagome's frayed nerves a little bit.

"Cool it. I'll go with you. We'll get you washed and once you eat I'll bet you feel better."

Kagome was so wobbly in the shower that Rin had no choice but to undress and get in with her, just to make sure she didn't pass out, crack her head open on the tile floor, and die. She washed her hair and body, peeling off the dressings on her wounds and sponging them down while Kagome hissed in pain through her teeth.

Kagome was looking pretty green by the time they got her out of the shower and into some panties. Rin managed to bundle her into bed, and checked the hallway again for Inuyasha. Kagome needed _food._ But there was no sign of him, So Rin slipped her yoga pants off and slid into the bed next to Kagome to wait.

Inuyasha was just putting the finishing touches on a couple of huge sandwiches when Shippo burst through the doors of the large kitchen.

"You wouldn't BELIEVE the day I'm having!" He said, trying to grab one of the sandwiches. Inuyasha swatted him off.

"Get the hell away, these are for Kagome." He said, "And YOU are not the one who is having a bad day. She was nearly killed last night and now Naraku is on the loose. You got the kids all in?"

"Yeah, we got everyone on alert. Sesshomaru thinks he was bluffing thought. Doesn't know where the school is." Shippo grabbed a bag of chips and opened them with a flourish, digging in.

"Thmdd dhdhmm mmmgg hhghd!" He said, smiling around a mouthful of Cool Ranch Doritos.

"What the fuck did you just say?" Inuyasha said, grabbing a bunch of bananas for the tray he was setting up. Shippo swallowed with a gulp and coughed.

"That Kagome sure is sweet on you!" He repeated, eyes gleaming.

"I don't know about that," Inuyasha said glumly. "...anymore."

"Oh god. What did you do?"

"Hey," Inuyasha bristled. "What makes you think it was something I did?"

"Because she's a sweetheart. She'd never do anything to hurt _you._ "

"Shut the fuck up." Inuyasha said, feeling like total shit.

"Hey now," Shippo protested through a mouthful of Oreo cookie. "You say what you want, but I saw her when you carried her in here. She was all cozied up to you, purring like a kitten."

"I know she kinda likes me," Inuyasha allowed, "But...it looks like we'll need to have a talk. Before things go further."

"Don't tell me you're going to push her away to keep her safe? You know that doesn't really work. I mean, Naraku would make a snack of her no matter what you did now. Your scent is aaaaaallll over her."

Inuyasha grunted. "Apparently not in the way that matters."

"What the hell's that supposed to me? Your scent is your scent!"

"But it's not a _mated_ scent!" Inuyasha protested. Shippo just grinned, all fangs.

"That's a pretty easy fix, bro." He said with a theatrical wink. "Just go on upstairs. The way she was snuggled up to you earlier, I don't think she'd kick you out of bed."

"You're sick."

"Worried you won't know how to do it right?" Shippo said with another grin.

"You fucking pervert. Everybody knows...how to do it right."

"I can give you some pointers, you know." Shippo pointed out. "After all, as a kitsune, it is kind of my specialty."

"The kitsune _specialty_ is luring horny men away by pretending to be a beautiful women." Inuyasha snapped back. "I doubt that routine would work on Kagome."

"It's more complicated than you might think." Shippo said seriously, "I have some experience I'd be willing to share with you. Women require….they require some special attention to put them in the right place...so to speak...so that you can-"

"I'd rather be gutted by a Bird of Paradise."

"Suit yourself. But she won't be thanking you for rutting her like a bull. Just remember to be gentle. Humans are not as rough as demons."

This did not jive with what Inuyasha had just heard Koga say, but he wasn't sure how to respond so he leaned against the counter-top and regarded in red-haired friend.

"Can I ask you something, Shippo?"

"Sure. You can ask me anything!" Shippo grabbed another handful of Oroes and tossed a few to Inuyasha.

"You've known my brother a long time."

"Yup." Shippo nodded. "I was there from the beginning. Don't you remember me?"

"You were just a kid when I left."

" _You_ were basically just a kid when you left."

"While I was away….did Sesshomaru have a mate?"

There was a long silence. Shippo even seemed to have stopped chewing.

"Why do you want to know that?" He asked. "He obviously doesn't have a mate now."

"No, he's interested in Rin. But when we talked about taking human mates...he didn't seem to know much about it. Dog demons mate for life….has he been….has he been waiting all this time?"

A cold voice spoke from the doorway.

"No."

Inuyasha snapped around to see his brother standing on the threshold of the kitchen, looking a little windswept. Sesshomaru stalked into the room and pulled a bottle of red wine from the wine rack. He used a claw to pierce and remove the cork, then poured himself a glass. Inuyasha stared at him, agog. He'd never seen Sesshomaru drink.

The demon in question drained his glass.

"No, what?" Inuyasha prompted, when Sesshomaru said nothing.

"No I have not been waiting all this time." Sesshomaru finished.

"So you've…"

"I had a mate." Sesshomaru finished for him, then poured himself another glass of wine.

"Shit." Inuyasha said. "And she died?"

"She did not die." Sesshomaru said, and drained his glass again. Shippo was trying to chew quietly but Inuyasha heard him gulp audibly. He felt like gulping audibly too. Whatever Sesshomaru meant, it couldn't be good. Dog demons mated for life.

"How?" He asked his brother, totally confused.

"I met Kagura soon after you left. She was….an annoyance at first. But soon I grew to appreciate her presence."

"Was she a dog demon?"

"No, she was a wind witch. A demon of the wind. And above all, she loved to fly."

Sesshomaru's face looked gray in the light of the kitchen. Suddenly Inuyasha thought his brother seemed a thousand years old. He almost was...but he never looked so much like it as he did now. "We were mated, and bonded, although the bond was not as strong as it would have been if she had been the same kind of yukai as I was. I asked after her people, her tribe, but she knew nothing of them. She didn't know where she had come from, only that she wanted to be free. She may have been entirely unique."

"Why didn't you tell me about her?Where is she now?" Inuyasha asked. Sesshomaru sighed.

"Naraku and I fought once while you were away. In that battle, he destroyed my mate, absorbed her into himself. She was no more. I felt the bond sever, and she was lost to me forever."

"You just said she was alive." Inuyasha said, although thinking about how that might be the case made him sick to his stomach.

"Inuyasha," Sesshomaru asked, with a heavy voice Inuyasha had never heard before. "The demoness who attacked you in your apartment. What did she look like?"

"You don't think-"

"Just tell me."

Inuyasha didn't have to think hard. The face was burned in his memory.

"She had red eyes. Wide, red eyes."

Sesshomaru seemed to crumple, and slid slowly to the floor, where he sat with his back to the kitchen island. Inuyasha had never been so alarmed at his brother's behavior. "Sess….what is it? Are you saying your mate is working for Naraku? How did you know?"

"I was on my way to speak to Kagome's parents. I caught her scent. I thought I had smelled it on you, but I dismissed the idea as crazy. But she had been there. She had been to Kagome's childhood home."

"Shit. Shit. _Fuck_. Sesshomaru, is this how Naraku knows where we are? Are you still bonded to her?"

"No, I told you. When Naraku absorbed her...she must have died. There is no bond anymore. She must be...a part of Naraku now."

"Why was she at Kagome's old house?"

"I can only assume she was after what I was after."

"And what was that?" Inuyasha asked, ears perking up.

"Inuyasha….I think Kagome may be a reincarnation."

"...of who?"

"Of Kikyo."

Inuyasha slid down to join Sesshomaru on the floor.

Inuyasha and Sesshomaru had spent a few more minutes talking from their dejected position on the kitchen floor. Inuyasha asked a few pointed questions ( _Does this mean you can't be with Rin now)_ and Sesshomaru gave a few terse answers ( _No)_ until Shippo finally got tired of seeing the silver-haired brothers so pathetic and rousted them up from the floor. He finished packing Kagome's tray and send the Taisho brothers upstairs to see their women.

Inuyasha wisely stayed behind Sesshomaru, lest Rin was still as anxious to see him as she had been before. When the taiyukai froze in the doorframe, Inuyasha nudged him in the back with the tray of food.

"What's the-" He started to say before Sesshomaru shushed him. He stepped slightly to the side so that Inuyasha could see the inside of the room. Suddenly he felt really, really hot and embarrassed. And turned on.

Kagome and Rin had apparently had a shower, and then climbed into bed together. Rin was wrapped around her friend, who was conspicuously topless. Rin herself had doffed her pants, and also kicked the covers enough to reveal the lacy panties she'd worn underneath.

"Why….." Sesshomaru seemed totally confused, another expression Inuyasha had never thought he'd see on his brother. "Why are they…?"

"Uh…." Inuyasha whispered, "The bed's pretty small…."

He was pretty ashamed of how the scene turned him on. But he figured it was worth it to see how much Sesshomaru was affected. Inuyasha's lips curved in a mocking smile.

"Hey, you can just go. I'll wake them up." He offered, gesturing to the tray in his hand.

"I'm not leaving you here alone with them," Sesshomaru whispered back, not taking his eyes off the pair.

"Why not?"

"Because you're looking at them like….."

"Like I want to crawl in there with them? Buddy that's how _you_ look."

"You're the one who admitted it. I would never intrude on the...affections of two women that way…"

"Well I'm not leaving," Inuyasha countered.

"Neither am I?"

"Will you guys just leave the fucking food and get out?" Came a voice from the bed. "We're having a nap, not putting on an exhibition for you perverts."

Kagome's head popped up as she spoke, glaring at the brothers. Her exposed body glowed warningly. Sesshomaru turned and left.

Inuyasha had never seen his brother move at that brisk pace outside of a battle. He grinned and winked at Kagome, who smiled and lay her head back down on Rin's shoulder.

"I guess I'll just get a chair….to make sure you're okay…" He offered lamely.

It was a testament to her training that Kagome could now purify just a single room (and a single hanyou) in a building full of demons.


	24. Chapter 24

**Just a brief note to the people who continue to leave links to anti-Sesshomaru/Rin websites….please stop. This is a just story I'm writing for fun. If you don't like my pairing then just find something you do like.**

 **For those readers who gave me feedback about my story so far, thank you! I appreciate your kind words and your honesty. I want you to know that I really enjoy trying to please my readers, so keep reviewing! I want to see if I can hit 100 reviews!**

 **Warning: Lemons in this chapter**

 **Finally**

Rin woke in the early evening. Kagome was still asleep, so she slipped out of bed as quietly as possible. She dressed in the fading light and snuck out of the room, looking for Sesshomaru. It took a few minutes of padding down hallways and peeking through doors before she found a room that was more like a study, and her dog-demon sitting at a desk, a world-weary slant to his shoulders.

"Rin," He said her name without looking up. She supposed he could smell her, or hear her even when she was padding down the hallway in her socks.

"Hey," She said, stepping into the room and closing the door behind her. "I was waiting for you earlier."

"I know. I'm sorry."

"Did you find what you were looking for?"

"More or less."

"Sesshomaru."

The taiyukai looked up with golden eyes. Rin saw the unhappy pull to his mouth. "What is wrong?"

"Nothing."

"You...you said you would come back. I thought we were ready to…." Rin blushed, but held his gaze. Sesshomaru was the one who dropped his eyes first.

"Rin, I can't do this to you," He said, looking down. Rin came a little closer.

"I thought we went over this?" She said softly, "You said...I thought...we could be together now. Isn't that what you want?"

"It is."

"Then what's the problem?"

"The witch who attacked Kagome?"

"Yeah?"

"Rin….she was my mate."

Rin suddenly felt as though she were falling. Shock filled every corner of her body. Her eyes grew wide and disbelieving.

"What do you mean? Was your mate?"

"Yes."

Rin's mouth pulled into a self-deprecating grimace.

"You said it would be forever," She said. "Dog demons mate for life."

"We do."

"So you and I can't be together?"

Sesshomaru sighed.

"Kagura...she died, Rin. At Naraku's hand. Hundreds of years ago. I never took another mate. But he must have done something...preserved her body in some way. I smelled her at Kagome's house. It is the body of my former mate, without her soul.

"I'm….I'm sorry."

"As am I. All Kagura ever really wanted was to be free, like the wind. She was not happy even when we were mated. She understood the alliance was useful, but she chafed at the connection, the responsibility. She was an admirable mate and a strong demoness, but ours was not a warm union."

"How could you say that?" Rin said, although she felt she was holding back tears. "You are not cold. No union with you could ever be anything but warm."

Sesshomaru smiled a bitter smile then.

"Only you would say something like that to me. Nobody would think of me as warm." He said, shaking his head.

"Did you….did you love her?" Rin asked, hating herself for asking it.

"No," Sesshomaru responded. "But we were partners. She mattered to me, and she was taken from me, and now she is being used. She is being kept from the freedom she bought with her life."

"What are you going to do?" Rin asked, feeling numb. A tear did escape then, and Sesshomaru must have scented the salt in the air because he stood up quickly and crossed the room to her, reaching out to touch her damp face.

"I'm going to kill him," He said softly. "And set her free."

"Are you going to go looking for him?" Rin whispered, looking down. Sesshomaru cupped her chin gently and kissed her cheek, nuzzling her softly. He didn't answer, but Rin understood.

"How long do we have?" She whispered.

"Tonight," he whispered back, before pulling her in for a kiss.

Kagome thanked the gods her family was currently in Japan.

They'd left a few weeks earlier to visit her grandparents. Her mother had wanted her to come, but Kagome had decided to stay. She felt like she hadn't been working at the school long enough to warrant a mid-year vacation like that. After talking to Inuyasha about the presence of the demon woman at her childhood home, she was immensely glad that no one had been there to get hurt.

Inuyasha and Kagome had spent some time in the school courtyard after she had gotten up from her nap. He was still fully human, and not happy about it ("How can I protect you if you blast all my powers away?") Nevertheless, he'd told her of Sesshomaru's trip to her childhood home and his belief that his former mate may be reincarnated somehow as the evil demoness who'd attacked her at the diner. He'd also told her of his brother's suspicion that she herself was a reincarnation of some ancient priestess, but they both agreed there was no real way to know. Sesshomaru said the thought had occurred to him after the attack. He hadn't thought of Kikyo much over the years but once she was on his mind, the similarities between her and Kagome were pretty striking, and not just in appearance.

Inuyasha didn't seem too happy about this possibility. Kagome wasn't sure why. He acted as though it were insulting to Kagome to consider that she was anyone but herself. His offense on her behalf was kind of endearing.

In the courtyard that evening, Kagome had hoped for another kind of endearing exchange. She knew Inuyasha cared about her and the chemistry between them was...well, excruciatingly potent. She was disappointed, therefore, when Inuyasha treated her not with the familiarity she craved but with a polite diffidence, as though she were a respectable lady. But not one that he would bang.

He explained to her that until the threat of Naraku was dealt with, she and Rin would stay in the school compound for their own safety. They would be assigned guards, and Sesshomaru would likely leave to seek Naraku out. Kagome was not happy with this outcome, but what could she do? She didn't want to stay in close contact with someone who was obviously regretting his declaration that he wanted to be with her. It would have felt better to sneak back to her old house, find a new job, and lick her wounds.

So she planned to do just that. She decided after she'd spoken with Inuyasha. He introduced her to her guards, a pair of rangy panther demons, and taken his leave of her. She holed herself up in her room, prepared to zap her guards as soon as she felt it was late enough. One of them brought her a tray for dinner. She ate it, feeling like a prisoner. She waited for Rin to come back to the room, but she never did. The stars came out, and Kagome watched the night sky through her window. She peeked out of her door and made as if to leave, but the guard shook their heads.

"No ma'am," the tallest guard said. "We're under strict orders to watch over you."

"Can you just come with me then? I've been stuck in this room forever," Kagome wheedled, giving the guards her most winning look. She'd felled that other guard pretty quickly, the one with the bright blue eyes. Maybe all demons were a little soft for human women?

Maybe not. The two guards exchanged looks and gestured back to the door. Kagome sighed and stepped back in, letting it shut behind her. This was a little rich, she thought to herself. She was only in this pickle because she'd caught the eye of a certain hanyou, who might have done better to just leave her alone. Now she was trapped in a school dormitory with two jackasses for guards and no access to her former life, and at the same time the hanyou who was responsible for this acted like he didn't even want her anymore? _Fuck this._ Kagome put on Rin's shoes, which were mysteriously still in the room, and opened the door again.

"Umm, guys?" She said sweetly, "There's a bug in my room."

"Kill it," The shorter guard said with an eye roll.

"It's really big," Kagome said. "And I thought Inuyasha put you here to protect me?"

The guard sighed and stepped into the room. The other one waited in the hall. When he heard a thump, he frowned and peeked in, but a blast of pink light was all he could see. Everything went black.

Kagome dusted her hands off (even though there was no dust on them; it felt like a gesture you were supposed to make when you zapped two demon guards into unconsciousness). She felt pretty pleased with herself. _That_ would teach Inuyasha to put two full-demons up to the task of guarding a reincarnated priestess! Her powers were _only_ dangerous to demons. He would have been better to post two human jackasses outside her door to keep her in.

Kagome crept down the hall towards the back exit she'd come in after her talk with Inuyasha tonight. She stopped briefly outside the door to some random room, intrigued by the sounds she heard within. After a moment her face reddened. Someone was _obviously_ having sex.

"Rin," A voice inside the room moaned. Sesshomaru's voice. Kagome grinned to herself. It looked like Rin would not be needing her shoes for the time being. Kagome continued down the hall. She let herself out the door at the back of the building and crept through the woods to the road. It was freezing cold outside and she had no coat, but she continued down the road towards home anyway. All she wanted was a shower in _her_ shower, and to sleep in _her_ own bed.

The longer she walked through the darkness, the more her life at the school seemed to recede like a memory from a dream. She toyed with the idea. Maybe none of it had been real. Maybe she would walk straight home and find Rin cooking dinner or working on an order in the back greenhouse. They would joke and laugh, and Kagome would dress in her comfiest sweatpants and eat a bowl of hot soup in front of the TV.

She was shivering like mad when she finally made it to her own house, and it was dark. The porch light was out. She didn't have the key, but that didn't matter. She happened to know that their security system was broken, so she took off a shoe and smacked the heel through the glass pane in the door, reaching through the broken glass to turn the lock and let herself in.

The house still smelled, ridiculously, of apple cider. Kagome breathed in happily as she went through from room to room, turning on all the lights. She stuffed a towel through the broken window pane and pulled the curtain over it so she didn't have to look at it. She tromped up to her room and basically flung herself into the hottest shower she'd ever taken, smothered herself in her favorite lotion, and wrapped herself up in her favorite silk pajamas, adding a hoodie sweatshirt for good measure. She brushed out her hair and teased it with her fingers, letting it dry curly. Then she curled up inside the down comforter on her bed and tried to fall asleep, but it was no use. She was scared.

She crept back downstairs and pulled the armchair in front of the broken front door. How stupid could she be, breaking a lock? What if that demoness came back? Coming home would have been a lot more inviting if she hadn't had to come home _alone,_ she decided. Suddenly every shadow was a demon out to kill her.

She poured herself a glass of wine from the fridge, hoping to calm herself with a little buzz (probably another bad idea, but whatever). She drank it down and then a shadow cast by a passing car made her jump and squeal. Once she realized it wasn't someone out to kill her she grew angry. She threw the wine glass, which smashed in a most satisfying manner against the old cabinets. She threw a few more things, just experimentally, and toppled the now-cold basin of apple cider, spilling the fragrant liquid all over the linoleum floors.

Without missing a beat, Kagome began to cry. She also knew she needed to mop of the mess, so she went upstairs, sniffling, and returned with towels. She mopped up the cider on her hands and knees, getting soaked and sticky in the process, wiping her tears with her forearm when they threatened to fall. There was nothing for it, she decided. She'd have to go back to the school. There was no way she'd be able to fall asleep here.

"Kagome? KAGOME!" A gruff voice roared from the porch. Kagome yelped and jumped so high she figured she might have touched the ceiling. She looked into the entryway and saw a clawed hand pushing through the broken glass. "KAGOME!" he yelled again, his voice hoarse and desperate.

"Inuyasha! Stop!" Kagome yelled, worried he would try to bust through the door. "I'm here! I'm fine! Just let me…" She pulled the chair aside and opened the door. Inuyasha was standing on the porch, looking like he'd seen a ghost.

"What happened?" he asked, breathing heavily. Kagome furrowed her brow.

"I couldn't sleep in that dorm room, so I came home." She said, feeling a little defensive. She probably had a reason to be, because when he heard her answer Inuyasha puffed up like a balloon about to pop.

"It was YOU?" He said. "You attacked those guards! I thought someone had _gotten_ you! I followed your scent...your _fucking DOOR IS BROKEN!"_

"Well what the hell do you care?" Kagome shouted back at him. "What's it to you if some demon comes by and kills me?"

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Inuyasha roared. "Of course I care! Why would you think I wouldn't care? Didn't I JUST TELL YOU I CARED ABOUT YOU?"

"YEAH!" Kagome shrieked, tossing the towels down, "You told me, then starting treating me like your FUCKING GRANDMOTHER!"

"My _grandmother?_ What does that even mean?" Inuyasha asked, still fuming.

"Like you didn't want to touch me!" Kagome answered, trying to hold back more tears. She was shaking. "You almost did it with that demoness who took my clothes, and you told me you wanted to be with me, but then you act like you don't want me anymore…" Oh _fuck._ She was crying in earnest now. She scrubbed at her cheeks angrily and sniffled. "What is it?" She asked wetly at Inuyasha's astonished face. "Am I...tainted to you now?"

"No!" Inuyasha breathed. "Jesus, Kagome, no." He stepped forward and wrapped her up in a hug. "I was so scared when I went up to your room to check on you. I can't even tell you….I shouldn't have left you alone….I'm sorry…."

"Why don't you want to be with me?" Kagome asked, her voice muffled by Inuyasha's red jacket. "You've been weird since you brought me home from the hospital."

"Kagome," Inuyasha gave her a squeeze and leaned her back so she would look at him. " _You've_ been weird since we got back from the hospital. What's going on?"

"Nothing! I was just getting paranoid about your exes," She explained, a little embarrassed. Inuyasha looked nonplussed.

"My exes?" He asked.

"Yeah, as soon as I asked you about your exes it seemed like you didn't want to talk anymore. And I'm sorry-I know you probably don't want to think about them or rehash old relationships with me...only I figured we'd have to talk about it because we don't know what it means for, you know, all your demon-mating stuff….." She trailed off, feeling defensive at the look on his face. "I was just trying to clear things up," She went on, trying to explain. "But then _you_ got weird."

"...sorry."

There was a long pause. Kagome was nervous, but she felt now was the only time she would really have to ask. At least he wasn't totally shut down. He still had her in a firm grip around the waist, like he didn't want to let her go.

"So...who is she?"

"Who is who?"

"Whichever former lover you don't want to tell me about."

Inuyasha stiffened, then let Kagome go. She bristled.

"Inuyasha, if you want this to work you're going to have to tell me."

"I just don't know why you keep making these assumptions-"

"Because you get all weird and silent!"

"Kagome…"

"Why else wouldn't you want to talk to me about this?"

"It's not what you think…"

"Fine. Then what is it? Why do you shut down every time we talk about this...every time we get close?"

Inuyasha groaned and rubbed his face with clawed hands.

"Kagome, oh shit. You're not going to like this."

Kagome steeled herself, but didn't say anything. Inuyasha dropped his hands and looked up at the ceiling. "You keep mentioning exes. Kagome...there aren't any."

"Any exes?"

"No."

"You're saying you've never been in a relationship?"

"Yep."

"So you're some kind of man slut?" Kagome said, confused.

"No, Kagome. It's...it's the opposite of that." Inuyasha sighed, wishing the earth would open up and swallow him whole. Kagome blinked, owl-like, a few times.

"You've never…had sex before? With a human?"

"With anyone."

Kagome stared at him, astonished.

"Aren't you….really old?"

"Uh, only compared to you."

"You've been alive for centuries?"

"Yeah."

"And you never had sex?"

"Nope."

"Oh. Oh. Oh my god."

"Yeah."

Kagome felt terrible. He'd been embarrassed, because she'd assumed he must have had lovers. But he hadn't. She didn't know what to say, so she opted for something safe.

"That's a long time to wait," She quipped.

"You're telling me," Inuyasha agreed.

"But why? Why wait?" She asked.

"Well for a whole no demon woman would want me, because I was hanyou. Human women were scared of me. When we developed the concealment spells, I could blend in with humans but I never...I never met a woman I wanted."

"I'm sorry," Kagome said seriously.

"Why? It's not your fault." Inuyasha said.

"No...I'm sorry for making you feel ashamed of that."

Inuyasha's lips curled into a self-mocking smile, but he didn't respond. Kagome sidled up to him, shyly reaching for his hand. He took her smaller hand in his own. "I'm really glad you came over," She said quietly, looking down at the locked hands. "I was scared."

"I was scared too. I thought someone had got you."

"I'm sorry. For a while I felt...I wished none of this had happened."

"It's my fault. I should have stayed away from you," Inuyasha whispered, his voice husky. Kagome was leaning into him, and she thought she could hear his heart racing.

"I don't want you to stay away from me," She whispered back. "Inuyasha...can we...can we stay here for tonight?"

"...yeah."

"I've got some things I want to show you."

"Oh yeah?"

"Have you...done _anything_ before? With anyone?" She asked, taking his other hand in her own. They were very close. She could feel his body heat.

"I, uh. I know how it all _works,_ technically." Inuyasha said, face reddening. "I think."

Kagome smiled up at him.

"Come on, baby." She said, tugging him towards the stairs. "I'll show you how it works."

Kagome had never slept with a virgin before. She'd lost her virginity to her first college boyfriend, who'd lost his to his high school girlfriend. He'd been gentle with her, but it hadn't been the best experience of her life. How would Inuyasha remember this?

She brought him up the stairs, but he stopped her at the door to her room, surprising her by pulling her body close to his.

"Sorry, I haven't done this yet…" he said, and lowered his lips to hers.

Kagome experience a delicious thrill at the touch of his lips, and responded ardently to his kiss. She used her tongue to tease his lips open and explore. Inuyasha groaned and backed her up to the wall, where he pressed his whole body up against hers. He was already hard. Kagome thought about grasping his erection but decided against it, not wanting to move things too fast. She wanted him to enjoy every second they were together.

Kagome used her tongue to toy with Inuyasha's fangs and was rewarded by more groans, and a little grinding. His hands traveled from her back down to her hips. She angled one hip and brought a leg around him, inviting him to touch her backside, which he did.

She broke the kiss long enough to pull him into the room and scoot him onto the bed, where he sat up against the headboard. He tried to bend his knees at first and Kagome knew he was nervous about his erection, so she pretended not to notice it at first. She straddled him, grinding along the full length, and Inuyasha he closed his eyes and hissed. He grabbed her hips as she leaned forward to continue kissing him.

"Tell me," He groaned in between kisses, "What you want me to do."

"Hmmm," Kagome didn't answer in words, but leaned back enough to push his jacket off of his shoulders and pull his shirt over his head, revealing the hard planes of his abdomen. "Oh, god," She said, and Inuyasha grinned, and allowed his concealment spell to drop fully. His silver hair cascaded over his body. Kagome traced his chest with her fingers.

"What do you want _me_ to do?" She asked, thinking he might like a blow job first. Most guys really enjoyed that. But Inuyasha's grin only few wider and he said,

"I want you to step off the bed, and then take your clothes off really, really slowly." He said. Kagome giggled, but did as she was told, only too happy to rid herself of the over-large hoodie and the pajamas. Inuyasha stared for all he was worth at her breasts, mouthing an appreciative curse or two. But that was nothing to his look when she shimmied out of her panties. By the time she crawled back on the bed to help him out of the rest of his clothes, his erection was so large it was difficult to get his pants off around it.

Once it was free, Kagome felt it too big a temptation to pass on. While Inuyasha was still kicking the last pant leg off of his foot, she leaned forward to take the tip of his member into her mouth.

"Oh _f-fuck_ ," Inuyasha hissed, and jerked back. Kagome sat up. "What are you doing? He asked.

"You don't know what I was doing?" Kagome asked. "Don't you...watch movies?"

"Obviously not the same movies you're watching!" Inuyasha responded, sounding so affronted it made Kagome laugh.

"Just relax," She said, still smiling. "This is going to feel good,"

Inuyasha leaned back against the headboard again and although what he really wanted was to run _his_ mouth all over her body, he was powerless to stop her in what she was doing. Her tongue circled his cock, she slid her lips over and bobbed her head, taking a good portion of his length into her hot mouth. Pleasure rioted in Inuyasha's belly. He'd never felt anything so fucking good in all his life. He groaned in pleasure as Kagome licked and sucked him, humming softly.

When she came up for air he took the opportunity to bring her up to him for a kiss. She straddled him and kissed him fiercely, reaching up to massage the base of his ears.

"Oh, god, Kagome…" If she didn't stop he'd come right away. Her legs were straddling his lap and he could feel her hot core hovering over his erection. He wanted more, but he wasn't sure what to do next. He broke the kiss and sucked lightly on her neck, risking a pass across her naked breasts with his palms. Her nippled hardened and she moaned, the most _delicious_ sound he'd ever heard.

"I'm wet," She whispered, taking one his hands in her own and guiding it downward. "I want you to touch me here; it feels good…" Inuyasha's fingers came into contact with her wet, hot body and she twitched and moaned again. He passed his fingers over the area a few times, kissing her collarbone and her neck, but he wasn't really sure what he was supposed to be feeling. Kagome wasn't complaining, but she did halt him long enough for them to make eye contact.

"Are you ready?" She asked seriously. Inuyasha was flushed and hot and desperate for more of her, so it was an effort not to nod in cartoonish eagerness. Kagome leaned over long enough to retrieve a sliver square from her bedside table. She showed him how to slide the condom on, explaining briefly what it was for (this information Inuyasha already knew, but didn't want to spoil the moment since it appeared that Kagome was enjoying her role as the teacher). Then she positioned herself, and slid downwards onto his shaft, engulfing him in eye-crossing pleasure. He grasped her back and held her as she moved up and down, every motion a torture of sensation. She leaned forward, and he took a nipple into his mouth, eliciting a cry of pleasure from her.

They found a rhythm, and Inuyasha knew he'd never felt anything so good in his life. Once or twice he hesitated, not sure what to do with his hands, or his mouth, or with her weight across his middle. But Kagome was lithe and smooth and always managed to coax him back into a rhythm. Before long he felt pleasure building, and it seemed like she could tell. She ramped up her attentions, squeezing and moving harder and faster until all Inuyasha could think was _more, more, more…_

Suddenly it was at a peak, and a shot of pleasure surged through him, like a single, powerful firework.

He groaned raggedly, dropping his head onto Kagome's shoulder as she held him tight, her body wrapping around his.

And then it was over, and he was limp in Kagome's arms, panting and sweaty. She rolled off of him and moved aside so he could dispose of the condom in the wastebasket by the bed. She visited the bathroom and came back, still deliciously naked, and crawled under the covers with him. Inuyasha stretched out and hummed appreciatively when she threw her leg across his middle and nuzzled into his neck. For a few long minutes neither one spoke. Inuyasha traced circles into her smooth back with his fingertips. She ran her hand lightly over his stomach.

He'd never felt so satisfied, and alive. He could suddenly smell more of her fabulous scent. She wrapped around him like a blanket. All he could think about was her, the curve of her breasts pressed against him, the dip of her waist and the angle of her hip as he tickled it with his claw. He turned slightly so that they were on their sides, with his arm wrapped securely around her. He bumped her nose with his own. She rested her hands on his chest. He closed his eyes and breathed her in. She moved so close he could feel her eyelashes fluttering on his cheek.

"I love you," He whispered hoarsely.

"I love you too." She responded. "Will you stay with me?"

"Yeah. You don't snore, right?"

Kagome slapped his arm, and he tweaked her side. She squealed, but then grew serious, looking at him through wide eyes.

"How was it?"

"How _was_ it?" Inuyasha choked out. "Are you...couldn't you tell?"

"So you enjoyed your first time?"

"Oh, _fuck,_ Kagome….yes." Inuyasha said. He hesitated a moment. "Did you...did you enjoy it?" He asked, face reddening.

"Of course I did!" Kagome said, just a shade too brightly. Inuyasha narrowed his eyes at her. She sighed. "I mean it, I really enjoyed it."

"But you didn't...you weren't…"

"I wasn't finished, no, but-"

"Shit! I've already fucked up!"

"No it's okay! I don't always have to. Sometimes it's nice for it to be about the other person."

"I mean...did it feel good to you at all?"

"Yes! It did. But I usually need more than just...penetration….to have an orgasm."

Inuyasha was confused. He felt at this moment it would have been better if he had watched more porn. He wasn't sure what she was talking about, Luckily for him, Kagome went on. "I feel good when I'm touched between my legs," She explained. "There's a very sensitive spot. If you pay attention to it with your fingers, or your...your mouth...I can have lots of orgasms."

"I knew you liked it when I touched you...I just wasn't sure what I was feeling."

Kagome smiled sweetly.

"Would you," Inuyasha asked, feeling a little shy. "Would you show me?"

"Show you what?"

"I want to make you feel good too," He said. "I want to get better at this. I don't want you to have to lead me through it all the time."

"Inuyasha...I would like that. But can we go to sleep now? I'm too tired for an all-nighter."

Inuyasha kissed her softly. "Go to sleep. I'm going to do a perimeter around the house.

Kagome protested sleepily when he slipped out of the bed and dressed again. He was still awake, but barely, when he came back in from the cold, after checking the property for any suspicious smells. As soon as he was back under the covers with her, she wrapped herself around him like she'd been waiting for him to fall asleep, which might have been true. After just a few moments she was asleep, breathing deeply. Inuyasha felt his heart clench as he watched her sleep, idly running a hand over her thigh (which she seemed to enjoy slinging over his waist). She was his now. And he was going to watch over her. Forever.


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N: Another short one, I'm sorry. I will do my best to move the plot forward in the next chapter, but I felt we needed some Rin/Sesshomaru time.**

 **Warning: Contains lemons.**

 **Convincing Arguments**

Sesshomaru woke long before Rin did. He watched the sun come up through the blinds of his room in the school dormitory. He had carried Rin from the study to the bedroom after she'd fallen asleep the first time, and they'd made love again in his large four-poster bed, which was much more comfortable than the small couch where they'd managed it the first time.

Sesshomaru growled softly, the sound vibrating in his chest. He'd marked her the second time, and taken her from behind as was proper for an Inuyukai. She'd responded beautifully, ardently, and fully. Her skin had tingled with slight purification power as he'd sunk his teeth into the skin of her shoulder, but he was confident the mark had taken. She was his now. He could feel their bond in every cell of his body. He could sense her heartbeat, he was enveloped in her scent, and he could feel her sleeping mind at the back of his own, a soft, familiar presence.

Rin snuffled slightly, and her skin glowed softly like a nightlight and then returned to normal. Sesshomaru supposed he might have to get used to her powers reacting to his close proximity. Although since Rin had more control over her powers, she wasn't a danger to him the way Kagome was. _That_ woman was like a powder keg waiting to be lit. She was obliviously sitting on more purification power than he'd ever sensed in his incredibly long life.

Sesshomaru drew a clawed hand down Rin's bare back, marveling at the warmth of her olive skin. She was his heart's delight. From her big, brown eyes to her mussed hair to her generous curves, she was made for him. He was seized with that familiar instinct to pull her closer, to keep her safe, to bare his fangs at anyone who dared come near her. He remembered the feeling dimly, from his mating with Kagura. She'd had none of Rin's warmth and rosiness. She was hard, all sharp edges, with an acerbic tongue and a wicked wit. He'd been irritated by her initially, but his respect for her had grown as they got to know each other. She'd been a worthy mate; strong, capable, and loyal. He hadn't known, until he met Rin, that a mate could be anything _more_ than that. Rin was certainly strong, capable, and loyal. But she was also calm, measured, warm and comforting. She was dignified and self-possessed. And her response to him as he'd made love to her was passionate and surprising. She was altogether intoxicating.

Sesshomaru's stomach turned in knots as he considered what he was planning to do, not the least because of what he would have to ask of Inuyasha. His contented purr expanded into a growl. Rin stirred beside him and blinked blearily. She lifted her head from where it lay on his shoulder.

"Mmmm, Sess?" She murmured sleepily. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," He responded softly, turning to press a kiss to her forehead. "It's not quite morning yet; you can't go back to sleep."

"Mmmmhmmm, or you can make love to me again," Rin said, sitting up and holding the sheets in front of her naked body. She looked very much like she wanted Sesshomaru to tear them off of her. "After I….visit the ladies room." With a quick smile she'd whisked herself off of the bed, sheets and all, and disappeared into the bathroom. Sesshomaru sighed. It _was_ nearly morning, and as much as he wanted to stay in this room naked with his new mate, he had something else on his mind.

Naraku.

Rin would never be safe until he managed to kill the bastard hanyou. The spider-demon was clearly out to get him, Inuyasha, and anyone they cared about. He would have to take him out once and for all in order to gain any peace. And peace was something he sorely wanted now, and he wanted it with the human woman he'd just spent the night with.

Sesshomaru knew his resolve would fade if Rin came back and tried to lure him back into bed, so he got out and dressed quickly. She was out of the bathroom just as he was pulling a pair of socks on, having already donned a pair of jeans and a blue button-up shirt. Rin was still wrapped in the sheet, and her brown hair tumbled around her shoulders. She'd washed up a little bit and looked more bright-eyed. Those bright eyes fell, however, when she saw what Sesshomaru was doing.

"What….so soon?" She asked softly. Sesshomaru sighed.

"The sooner I go, Rin, the sooner I can deal with Naraku. As long as he is out there we won't be safe."

Rin stepped forward slowly, as if weighing her thoughts.

"I understand," She said, "But does it have to be right now?"

Sesshomaru quirked an eyebrow at her, and Rin reddened slightly. She stepped forward into him and he put his arms around her. "I'm not...I'm not done with you yet," She said in a low voice which made every nerve in Sesshomaru's body tingle. Suddenly his breathing grew a little more labored.

"Rin I'll…." He leaned back and stroked her cheek softly, looking into her dark eyes. "I promise I'll come back. And then you'll have me for the rest of our lives."

Rin didn't answer, but closed the distance between them with a kiss. At first Sesshomaru thought she was saying goodbye with the kiss, and he kissed her back with a soft formality that suited the occasion. However, Rin's lips parted and her tongue stroke his, and suddenly she was moaning, and he was growling again, and she dropped her sheet and was climbing up into his lap, and he was grasping her deliciously naked body.

Rin pushed him down onto the bed, kissing his lips, his cheeks, his neck. He made a soft protest or two, knowing it was growing late and he needed to find Inuyasha, but when his fingers found the wet heat between Rin's legs and she shuddered and moaned, he promptly forgot all about his brother and the favor he needed to ask of him. All that mattered now was getting out of these infernal clothes…..

Rin helped him unbutton his shirt and pull it off. His pants presented a greater hazard, what with both of their hands fumbling at the zipper, but eventually Rin managed to swat his hands away long enough to peel his jeans off herself. Sesshomaru's member was already hard and aching with need, but he wanted to make sure that his mate was taken care of. She attempted to climb on top of him, but he snatched her around the waist and flipped her on her back, giving him access to her full, round, olive-skinned breasts, which he licked and suckled until she was mewling helplessly underneath him. When his ministrations had brought her to such a point of desperation that she was trying to reach in between them to touch herself, he kissed his way down her stomach. Rin arched her back, breathless with pleasure, as his lips coasted around her inner thighs.

"Sesshomaru," She moaned, "Oh, God."

Sesshomaru wasn't a the most experiences lover of all time, but he understood this woman. Everything she did was a signal to something else, a clue of how to pleasure her more. He licked her softly between her legs, then with more intent. Rin panted and writhed and came with a shuddering moan that nearly undid him. Before she had recovered fully he'd entered her, sheathing his length in her tight, wet heat. Rin wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his shoulder. He set a fast pace, and she kept up with him, meeting him thrust for thrust. She moaned his name again and clutched at his back. Sesshomaru dropped his head into her neck as pleasure grabbed him and he came with a groan.

"Rin," He gasped, scarcely believing himself, "I love you. I love you so much."

In the aftermath they lay entwined, and Rin ran her fingers through his hair. Sesshomaru recovered his breath as he made small kisses around the mark of their mating. "I love you," He said again. Rin smiled.

"I know," She replied, leaving it at that.

She pulled the sheets around her again for another trip to the bathroom to clean up. Sesshomaru watched her go, foolishly proud of the scent of his seed on her, in her. No one would come close to her now. He had thoroughly claimed her as his own in a way no demon could refute.

Knowing he only had a short amount of time before she returned and convinced him to stay longer, Sesshomaru dressed quickly.

When Rin emerged from the bathroom, he was gone.


	26. Chapter 26

**A/N: Another shorter one. We made it to 100 reviews! How many more can we get? Thanks so much for all the kind words! I hope you are enjoying the story.**

 **Blood Brothers**

Inuyasha had woken a few times that morning. He'd gotten up two or three times in the night to run a perimeter around the house, and a few times he'd woken to sniff around downstairs and make sure nobody managed to get in without his knowing it. Kagome had been so tired that she'd slept through nearly all of it, mostly waking only enough to wrap herself around him as he slipped back into bed with her. She sure liked to sleep wrapped around him, purring like a feline. What was it like when she slept alone?

Sesshomaru's light tapping on the window didn't alarm Inuyasha, since his brother's scent had woken him before the taiyoukai had appeared at Kagome's window, lifted in his cloud of demonic energy. Inuyasha was already slipping back into his pants and shirt, and motioned for his brother to meet him downstairs. He figured he was in for it, since he'd done exactly what Sesshomaru had warned him not to do, but what the hell? From what Kagome had told him last night, it was very likely that Sesshomaru himself had broken his own rule.

Inuyasha met his brother on the porch, where he would still be able to hear if Kagome woke but where their voices were unlikely to carry all the way into her room. He wrinkled his nose at Sesshomaru.

"What's wrong with your smell?" He asked, feeling a little uncomfortable. Sesshomaru suddenly smelled a little too familiar.

Sesshomaru sighed.

"It's a mated scent," He said, apparently deciding not to beat around the bush at all. "Lady Rin and I became one last night."

Inuyasha gaped at his brother. It wasn't the news that disturbed him so much, since he'd had fair warning. It was the method of delivery. _Lady_ Rin? _Became one_? There were so many opportunities to openly mock he wasn't sure which one to pick. He opened his mouth to start in on something about _Lady_ Rin, but tripped over his own tongue in the process and only managed something like, "L-lady?"

"Yes," Sesshomaru responded in a dignified manner. "My...our...ancestral lands may be far away right now, but you and I are sons of the great dog general and I am Lord of the West. As my mate, Rin is the new Lady of the West."

"You're such a fucker," Inuyasha said, unable to respond appropriately to such quiet dignity. "You told me to stay away from Kagome and then you go and fuck her roomate!" He was rewarded by a slight crack in Sesshomaru's steely facade.

"I see it doesn't matter anyway," The dog demon responded acerbically, "as you decided to forego my advice as usual. At least in part."

"Well if your advice wasn't total shit I wouldn't have to forego-what did you mean in part?" Inuyasha asked suddenly.

"You haven't been mated yet," Sesshomaru replied, as if it were completely obvious.

Inuyasha's hackles went up. Something in his instincts sensed another male challenging his claim. He growled threateningly.

"What the hell are you talking about?" He said to Sesshomaru, eyes darkening. "Kagome is _mine,_ my mate."

Sesshomaru stayed calm.

"Have you marked her?" He asked smoothly. Inuyasha blinked.

"Marked her?"

"Yes. I discovered last night that mating a female human is much the same as mating a female demon. One must be...gentler...but the process is still the same."

"Stop talking to me like I'm supposed to know what the fuck you're talking about!" Inuyasha snarled. To his astonishment, Sesshomaru actually laughed. Well, more like smirked audibly.

"It's a bite, brother." He said, in a condescending tone that made Inuyasha want to rip his head off. "A mark with your fangs. It joins you, bonds you to your mate. It alerts other males to keep away. Your scent is not reflecting this change, so I'm assuming you joined in the….in the human fashion."

"I'm going to tear your face off." Inuyasha said, crossing his arms and looking away. "What the fuck did you want, coming here?"

"I came to….make a request."

 _That_ got Inuyasha's attention. He glanced over at his brother, who looked very determined.

"What do you want?" He asked.

"I want to kill Naraku."

"Keh. Get in line."

"No, what I mean is, I'm _going_ to kill Naraku. Now that I have someone to protect I can

no longer afford to sit back and wait for him to make another attempt to get to me. I imagine you must feel the same."

"So you want me to help you kill him?"

"No. I want you to stay here while I go find him and put an end to him."

Inuyasha stood up a little straighter and fixed his brother with a narrow-eyed look.

"You don't want my help." He said flatly.

"No, I do want your help. I want your help in protecting my mate while I am gone."

"So you nail Rin, make her yours, and then leave her? For what? To go get killed? She's not going to thank you for not coming back."

"You think I am no match for Naraku?" Sesshomaru said, managing to sound affronted.

"I think if you were much of a match for Naraku you would have killed him a long time ago."

"Nevertheless," Sesshomaru continued, ignoring Inuyasha's assessment, "While I am gone my new mate will be vulnerable. Seeing as how you have acquired a new mate...after a fashion...as well, I thought you would be willing to stay if it meant protecting her as well."

Inuyasha shifted his weight.

"So what do you want me to do? Lock them up?"

"Keeping them on the school grounds would be sufficient."

"There are a lot of demons, full demons, who could do what you're asking…" Inuyasha started. He trailed off. Sesshomaru was silent for a few moments.

"There's no one else," He said finally, "To whom I would entrust the life of my mate. You are my brother. And you have an ability that surpasses any full-demon I've ever seen."

"An ability?" Inuyasha said, confused.

"You get stronger, Inuyasha, when others fail. You are at your best when other are at their worst. Should I fail, or should he slip through my grasp somehow….you are the only other demon who could stop Naraku."

"How are you going to find him?" Inuyasha asked, feeling a little hot around the collar at the praise from his brother.

"Kagura's scent. It was at Kagome's family home. I can start there. I will find him where he is hiding and put an end to him."

"Has it ever occurred to you that he wants you to come find him? That he may be _here_ by the time you get _there?_ "

"That's why I'm leaving you here. We can't afford to wait, though. Naraku must be dealt

with if we want to live normal lives."

"I didn't mind so much living an _abnormal_ life until…" Inuyasha said, thinking about the woman asleep in the bed upstairs. Sesshomaru nodded, seeming to understand.

"So you'll do it?" He asked.

"Fine." Inuyasha said. "When Kagome wakes up we'll go back to the school. But I expect you to call Rin as often as you can, if it ends up taking longer than you expect. I can protect her but I'm _not_ interested in constantly reassuring her that you're okay."

"Understood," Sesshomaru said, adjusting his jacket. He turned to leave, then turned back as Inuyasha was heading back in the house.

"Inuyasha," He said. The hanyou turned around, raising his eyebrows. Sesshomaru held out his hand. Inuyasha grimaced, but clasped in his own. The brothers shook hands. Sesshomaru gave Inuyasha a piercing look and a quick nod, and he was gone.

Inuyasha went back in the house to find Kagome wrapped in a blanket sitting on the stairs. He stopped in front of her and sighed.

"I guess we're heading back to the school," She said glumly.

"Keh, I'm sorry." Inuyasha said. "As soon as he gets back we can….uh, have a normal

life."

Kagome grinned impishly.

"Baby," She said, "I don't _want_ a normal life. I just want you to take me upstairs and do that thing Sesshomaru was talking about."

"Oh yeah?" Inuyasha said, grinning. "What might that be?"

"The, uh, the mark?" Kagome said, uncertainly. "I'm sorry I thought it would be clear from all my sexy innuendo."

Inuyasha furrowed his brow, confused.

"What sexy innuendo?" He asked.

"You know, uh…"

"You just said 'that think Sesshomaru was talking about'"

"And it would have been sexy if you hadn't asked what it was!" Kagome said indignantly.

"Woman, you don't need any extra sexy! You're naked, wrapped in a blanket, sitting on the stairs."

"I might not be naked." Kagome said. "How dare you assume I'm naked! You're brother was just here!"

"Hah. Tell me you're not naked." Inuyasha scoffed.

"I might not be naked. I might be...wearing your underwear or something."

"I wouldn't advise that. I don't remember the last time I washed them."

"Ew! God you are so gross!"

Inuyasha chuckled. Kagome rolled her eyes and stood, starting back up the stairs. She left the blanket behind.

Inuyasha considered the fact that they really needed to make it back to school...then he discarded that fact and followed his girl up the stairs and back into the bedroom.


	27. Chapter 27

**Broken Bonds**

Naraku was just finishing a new configuration of his body when Kagura blew in on the wind. He smiled darkly at her as she dismounted her feather and stepped daintily to the floor. She averted her eyes, apparently abashed at his current state. Tentacles writhed where his lower half should have been, slowly knitting together new parts to make a stronger body. Naraku's smile grew wider. He _loved_ these moments when shreds of her former self shone through. It only served to make her more desirable to him. Slaves were all well and good, but there was something more interesting, more _affectionate_ even, about someone who occasionally pushed back on him. It almost felt, sometimes, a little bit like love. Not that he really remembered what that felt like, but didn't old married couples argue all the time?

"Hello my darling," He said sweetly, imagining that she was having trouble looking at his handsome face and sculpted chest. "How did your mission go?"

"I found it." Kagura said, still not looking at him. She tossed a piece of yellowed paper towards him. He caught it with a tentacle as it fluttered in the air. He brought it to his face, scrutinizing the maddening English alphabet he had so much trouble with. _English._ Such an unsophisticated language. He squinted at the paper, at quite a loss. Kagura snorted.

"It's a birth certificate. Her grandfather's."

"...and?"

"And he was born in Tokyo, you moron, and his mother's surname is the same as…. _hers._ "

"A descendant!" Naraku crowed. "After all these generations, her family ended up here."

"Yes it's remarkable," Kagura replied dryly, stepping past the writing mass of his bottom half to get to the kitchenette portion of the studio apartment they shared. She set the tea kettle on the electric stove and rummaged around in the cabinets for some tea.

"It _is_ remarkable, my poppet, because now we have everything we want within spitting distance."

"Ugh, I hate that expression."

"We have everyone we hate, right here. Sesshomaru, Inuyasha, and now we know that bimbo is a descendant of the priestess Kikyo. I will get to murder Kikyo not once, but twice. How sweet."

"She's a descendant of Kikyo, not Kikyo herself." Kagura reminded him absently, still digging through the cabinets. "Did you forget to get the fucking green tea _again_?"

"It's that wretched Super Mart! It's too big. I can't find anything. Plus it's all in English."

"I sent you to the _Japanese Market_ you imbecile!" Kagura yelled. "Everything's in _Japanese_!"

"Shut up about the goddamn tea you disgusting wench! You wouldn't even be alive if it weren't for me!"

"I'm _not_ alive, you tentacle-brained piss-ant!" Kagura yelled back at him, her red eyes somehow growing redder. "I spent five hundred years absorbed into your body like I was some kind of _wart,_ and then you release me only to-"

"Careful," Naraku said more quietly, as he softly squeezed a bloody mass which appeared in his hand. Kagura gasped and clutched at her chest. "Do not forget," Naraku continued, his voice a threatening whisper, "who holds your heart in his hand."

"You hold my _body,"_ Kagura choked out, "But my heart resides with-"

"With _him_?" Naraku interrupted his voice mocking and full of disdain. "You think he's waited for you after all these years? You are such a twit. He was free of you the moment I severed your bond."

"A mating bond cannot be severed!" Kagura wheezed painfully, her eyes full of desperation.

"Except by _death!_ " Naraku responded with an evil grin. "And you, as you mentioned earlier, are no longer truly alive."

"Fuck you," Kagura spat out, just before she collapsed in a heap on the floor.

Naraku released the heart, having squeezed it just enough to black her out. Now he was was relieved, at least momentarily, of her acidic presence. Almost like love? He was a fucking fool.

"You're insufferable," He told her body, but jolted a but when she sat up shakily and responded, having woken up already.

"If I'm insufferable," She said with narrowed eyes. "You're insufferable. Because I'm

 _you_."

Sesshomaru was surprised and suspicious of how easy it was for him to trace Kagura's scent from Kagome's family home to the dank apartment building where he currently stood, deciding how best to limit collateral damage before he began the fight.

Naraku's scent and miasma hung thickly around the building, although any humans present were unlikely to notice. Sesshomaru knew the evil hanyou wouldn't be interested in broadcasting his presence and getting killed off by those humans who felt it was their duty to rid the world of demons.

It was an older building, slightly run down, in one of the less picturesque areas of town. Sesshomaru had scouted enough to know that the apartment where Naraku was hiding was on the left side of the building. He was a little insulted at how easy it was to find him. Fear edged in on his consciousness, a rare feeling for him. Inuyasha had suggested that Naraku was more likely to attack the school while he, the school's strongest defender, was away. Sesshomaru knew the risk, and he had made this move anyway. He felt that it was necessary to end Naraku as quickly as possible, whether that meant going to find him personally or finding a way to draw him out. Inuyasha or Shippo would contact him if Naraku showed up at the school, and he would be there within minutes, and then it would be over.

Sesshomaru drew his sword and sent a pulse of demonic power towards the building. A challenge. If Naraku was indeed there, he would not ignore it.

Momentarily, a figure did emerge from an apartment on the right side of a building. She walked with a light step. Her shape was familiar, even if her modern clothing was different. As she neared, he could see her deep, red eyes and the same jade earrings he had given her when they were mates. She stopped a few paces away from him, her eyes wide and vacant.

"Kagura," Sesshomaru said.

"Sesshomaru-sama," She replied, nodding her head slightly. "It has been a long time."

"Indeed."

She grew silent, searching his face with her eyes. Sesshomaru felt shame prickling at his skin like a rash. She no longer had their shared scent, their bond was severed, but here she was, demonstrably not dead, and he had disgraced her with another woman. His instincts were in a jumble. Kagura smelled dead and not dead at the same time. She was his and not his. Did he have two mates? Had he betrayed her? "...how?" He finally managed to ask. Her face grew dark.

"How what?" She asked back to him.

"How do you come to be here, witch?" He asked, using his old pet name for her.

"Naraku," She said slowly, "Has kept me alive. After a fashion." She winced and rubbed her chest. "And he is getting impatient," She continued, "He longs to see you dead."

Sesshomaru raised his sword.

"The feeling is mutual. Where is he?"

Kagura laughed, a sound that grated on Sesshomaru's nerves.

"Oh, Sess." She said, and reached out to run a hand down his sleeve lightly,

affectionately. "He's not _here_. Obviously he's gone to see to your brother first. After all, Inuyasha is the bigger threat."

A surge of blind panic forced its way through Sesshomaru's veins. His face remained impassive as he sheathed his sword and made to leave. Kagura's nails dug into his arm, stopping him. He turned back to her, lifting an eyebrow. She looked at him as though she was confused.

"Where are you going?" She said. "Didn't you hear me? Naraku isn't here, we can…"

Suddenly the wind shifted, blowing through Sesshomaru's unbound hair toward Kagura.

Her eyes widened as she stared at him in shock. For a moment neither one of them said anything, then Kagura's eyes narrowed and filled with tears. She clutched her chest.

"You-" She stammered. "What….what did you do?"

"Kagura," Sesshomaru began, but she didn't let him continue.

"You _betrayed_ me!" She shrieked, backing away, "Who is it? Why do I smell another woman all over you!"

"Kagura it's been five hundred years!" Sesshomaru snapped. "You were dead."

"I waited for you, I endured...you have no idea what I went through just to see you again!" Kagura yelled, her voice cracking with despair that wrenched Sesshomaru's heart.

"I didn't know," He said. "Our bond was broken. Whatever you are now….I don't know why you are…." He couldn't find words.

"Living through hell. Hell would have been _better_ than what I've lived through with that...uughh…" She choked out, holding onto her front as though her heart were about to burst. "I thought if anything mattered to you…" She continued, sweat beading on her brow. She was barely able to stand up straight. "...it was your _honor._ "

"I have not dishonored you. You died. I took a mate."

"I'm STANDING RIGHT HERE!" Kagura shrieked, snapping open her fan and whipping a whirlwind up around Sesshomaru.

Heart sinking and feeling torn in two, Sesshomaru abandoned thoughts of returning to the school, and turned to face her.


	28. Chapter 28

**Death and Other Things**

The fight was quick, and vicious, the way Kagura had always liked. Before they had even mated, Sesshomaru had admired her style. She was like a whirlwind herself, and her skills were formidable. Kagura didn't weigh the options; she didn't slow down to take stock. She struck, and struck, and struck again until it seemed like nothing could stop her forward momentum.

Unfortunately for her, it was not for nothing that Sesshomaru was Lord of the West. He possessed skills Kagura couldn't dream of, from his flight to his speed to his stinging whip. His sword flashed through the air as he swung and struck, reluctant to use a skill he knew might kill her. Kagura had no such compunctions. Within seconds he realized she meant to kill him, and she meant to do it as quickly as possible.

During the altercation, Sesshomaru kept his head as clear as possible, relying on the impassivity and iciness of his outward persona to calm him. When Sesshomaru really felt something, few people knew about it, and he allowed himself refuge behind his usual mask. He knew he had not betrayed Kagura. He knew the woman slicing the air into weapons in front of him was not his former mate. She was a half-living thing, a shell with a spark of the soul of the demoness who had agreed to be his partner centuries ago. The rage emanating from Kagura...well, it was Naraku's rage. Naraku, who had stolen the wind witch's freedom and used her body to exact revenge on Sesshomaru for having something to protect.

As he blocked a blow from Kagura, Sesshomaru lashed out with his acid whip, striking at the air with his claws. He didn't relish the thought of killing her, but he knew she was already dead. He had been her mate, and although he had never felt anything for her but the most begrudging respect, his honor did dictate that her life was his responsibility. She would die by his hand and none other.

Kagura's eyes were on fire, and her pert mouth twisted in a snarl of pain when the acid whip struck her side. She struggled to rise and whipped a feather from her hair, but Sesshomaru was wise to her ways. He brought his sword down an inch from her pale hand, halting her action.

"I failed you." He said, trying to keep his breath under control. "As your mate, I should have protected you, yet I allowed you to be taken by that monster."

"Let me go!" Kagura cried, eyeing the sword. She didn't get up.

"Your life belongs to me," He said, lifting the sword.

"My life belongs to _him,_ " Kagura spat. Sesshomaru's arm stilled, and she used the opportunity to make her escape. He could have stopped her, but Sesshomaru let her go, hoping he wasn't being a fool.

She was just a shade of herself, he knew. The Kagura from his past would never have admitted to belonging to anyone other than herself. Sesshomaru felt grief in his heart for her, a grief that had been closed off for many years. True, they had not been in love. Sesshomaru hadn't felt anything for her like what he felt for Rin. But Kagura was a comrade, a fellow demon, a person he had trusted with his soul. She would have been the mother of his pups, if things had been different. Now Rin would….

 _Rin._

Without another thought Sesshomaru leapt into the sky, only to be brought crashing down to the ground. He heard a mocking laugh, and whipped around to find the source. A slick, disgusting tentacle held him around the angle. He severed it with his claws and made to leap into the air again. Again a tentacle brought him down, and other wrapped around his legs, his arms, his waist. His sword was wrested from his grip. He looked up and saw with red eyes of his former mate, as she backed away from him, clutching his sword.

"Well done Kagura," The voice said. Naraku. "Thanks for the distraction."

The purple miasma that had coated the area began to clear, and Sesshomaru could make out the form of Naraku, a proud male body attached and sewn together with the tentacles and feelers, arms and legs of lesser demons. He was spider-like, oozing malevolence, and practically crowing with delight. Sesshomaru manipulated his hand enough to bring an acid whip out, but the tentacles easily dodged his limited range. He grunted in frustration, golden eyes staring into Naraku's eerily handsome face. "Ah, old friend," Naraku sighed as if pleased with himself. "It is good to see you again, after all these years. And you came to find me! Here I was thinking I would have to make good on my promise to visit your little establishment."

Sesshomaru was not one for excessive swearing, but he felt a "fuck you" was deserving here. He kept his mouth shut, though, hoping that in true villain fashion, Naraku would prattle on and reveal all his secrets.

Instead, Naraku pulled Sesshomaru closer to his sickening body. He leaned in until they were almost nose to nose, and inhaled.

"Mmmmmm" He said, as if in ecstasy. Sesshomaru fought of a shudder. "Where is she?"

"Who?" Sesshomaru asked, not sure what Naraku was asking about.

"The woman who has given you this delightful scent."

Sesshomaru glared contemptuously at Naraku and said nothing. The spider-hanyou

laughed as if delighted. "It's her isn't it!" He said. "I always thought you two had something going. Tell me, Lord, where is Kikyo?"

"Kikyo is dead, Naraku. You killed her yourself." Sesshomaru ground out.

"Ah, but Kagura has discovered an interesting scent in the childhood home of Kagome Higurashi." Naraku went on. "As an incarnation, she has a unique ability to sense a _reincarnation._ "

Sesshomaru had already suspected that Kagome was more than just a descendant of Kikyo's clan, but a reincarnation of the priestess herself. This information was not new to him. However, it would not help Rin if Naraku thought she was his prize. He couldn't set the evil hanyou straight, though, without endangering his own brother's mate. He could not do such a thing to a trusted member of his back. He said nothing, but strained his _youki,_ his demonic energy, in an attempt to break free.

The burst of energy was formidable, and Naraku shrugged away with a shout. However intimidating the effort was, however, it was not enough to loosen the grip of Naraku's foul tentacles. Naraku hissed and spit, then laughed with evil glee.

"I know you must be used to things coming easy to you, taiyukai," He said brightly, "But you will not escape from me easily. You become one with me now, and suffer."

Sesshomaru felt his body being pulled forward, towards the hanyou, who seemed to be growing larger. He strained every muscle in his arms and legs, buffeted Naraku with powerful drafts of demonic energy, and seared every tentacle near him with his acid whip even as his hands were kept immobile. It did no good.

Hundreds of years ago, Naraku had absorbed Kagura like this. Sesshomaru had seen it with his own eyes, and although his attacks had removed Naraku's head from his body, it did not stop the wind witch from disappearing into the writhing, sickening mass. He'd lost her that day, and although she was inexplicably alive now, he knew she had remained lost. He felt an unfamiliar surge of panic at the thought of being robbed of his own soul, as she had been. He thought of the woman of his heart, the woman with soft brown hair and a warm smile, and let the panic ebb away.

Sesshomaru narrowed his steely eyes and set his jaw, ready for whatever would come. No son of the great dog general feared death.


	29. Chapter 29

**Mansplaining: When a Man Explains Something to a Woman that she Undoubtedly Already Knows more About than he Does.**

Inuyasha paced back and forth, staring at the clock on the wall at the end of the hall. Shippo sat on a fainting couch opposite the door to Sesshomaru's bedroom. Kagome and Rin were inside the windowless, interior room. The students had been fed and put to bed by the various teachers and aides who had been called up for extra security. The school was basically on lockdown until Sesshomaru contacted Inuyasha.

 _Which he should have done by now_ , Inuyasha thought angrily, cursing his brother for his pride and uncharacteristic haste to confront Naraku. Inuyasha was known himself as a hothead, or had been in years past. Yet it felt lately like Sesshomaru was making all of the hot headed decisions, not at all like his normally calculated, ice-cold self.

Sesshomaru had been gone for four days.

Rin had held up considerably well, especially in the beginning. Once Inuyasha and Kagome had arrived to the school that first morning, she'd smiled and spoken warmly to both of them, assuring them that she knew what Sesshomaru was going to do and asserting that she had full faith in his ability to complete his task. Inuyasha escorted her himself to the school grounds so she could work in the garden. Kagome and the other teachers managed to entertain the students who lived at the school.

That had been the first day.

The second day Rin had appeared at breakfast looking pale and wan, but still cheerful. Kagome and Inuyasha were also a little bleary-eyed, having stayed up to late with the novelty of sharing a room and a bed. They ate together with Shippo in the kitchen before helping the school staff prepare breakfast for the students. Kagome was especially good and coaxing her grumpy ten-year-olds to smile. Inuyasha swelled with pride when he observed her comforting a tearful kindergartener. She would make a good mother to his pups. Later that afternoon Kagome coaxed a tense Rin into an impromptu yoga session in the great room. Some of Kagome's class (her 'fans', as Inuyasha thought of them) joined them, and before long Kagome had fooled Inuyasha himself into trying a few moves. As a fighter with centuries of experience, Inuyasha was fit and flexible, but something about the intricate poses and twists flummoxed him, much to the delight of the children present. Shippo did not help by using four of his five tails for balance and executing each move perfectly.

That had been the second day.

The third morning, Rin hadn't shown up for breakfast at all and Kagome had to go find her. She was feeling sick and stayed in bed until past eleven. Inuyasha began feeling the stress of not knowing what was going on with his brother, whose cell phone now went straight to voicemail. Around noon he made an executive decision and sent his best trackers, a trio of wolf demons (Koga, Ginta, and Hakkaku) out to Kagome's family home to see if they could track down his brother's scent. He urged them not to engage in any conflict, should Naraku be around. They were strictly to find out what they could and return, so Inuyasha could make a decision about what could be done.

That morning, the fourth morning, Rin never came out. Kagome had eaten her breakfast and taken some food to Rin. She had yet to emerge, although she had texted Inuyasha periodically throughout the day, she didn't want to upset Rin any more than she was already. She stayed close, and Inuyasha tightened the guard around the door, feeling something prickling at his senses but unable to tell what it was. It made him uneasy, at any rate.

The door cracked open and Kagome slipped through, carrying a tray of uneaten food. She closed the door quietly behind her and offered Inuyasha a weary smile.

"She's okay," She said. "It looks like she just had a stomach upset, maybe the stress. She's asleep now. What is it?"

Inuyasha's senses were reeling. As soon as Kagome had opened the door the scent had hit him like a brick in the face. His instincts whirled threateningly. He could see, in his mind, warm pups, quiet dens, snuffling and cries. He felt the overwhelming urge to cover Kagome with his own body, to stay as close to her as possible. To protect her. To protect them. He noticed Shippo getting to his feet unsteadily at the end of the hall. He locked eyes with the kitsune, who gave him a grim look and shook his head.

"It's not her," he said, as if answering a question.

Inuyasha looked back at Kagome, who was obviously confused.

"What the hell is going on?" She asked, still holding the tray. Inuyasha pushed past her and opened the door. "No, she's sleeping-" Kagome protested, but Inuyasha didn't stop. He stepped into the dark room, Shippo on his heels.

Rin was asleep on the large four-poster bed, curled up in a fetal position. Inuyasha crept up to hear and leaned down to catch her scent, although it wasn't necessary. After two days of staying in the room, Rin's scent was lingering throughout the space.

Shippo smelled too, and his face fell. Inuyasha gestured for him to go outside. Back in the hallway, Inuyasha closed the door behind Shippo and turned to face Kagome, who'd set the tray down and was staring at him.

"Kagome," Inuyasha said, "She didn't have a stomach upset. Rin's pregnant."

"What? No, she can't be pregnant yet." Kagome said, almost looking relieved. "I'm sure Sesshomaru is very thorough, but it takes six weeks to tell if you're pregnant or not. They only had sex four, five days ago."

"Kagome," Shippo said, "I don't really want to tell you how I know this, but it only takes a few days for an egg to implant in the uterus-"

"Please don't mansplain fertility to me, Shippo," Kagome said with irritation. "Last time I

checked, I was the only person around here with a uterus."

"What he's saying," Inuyasha interjected, "is that demons can smell a pregnancy as soon as it implants. She may not be able to take a test yet, but her scent has changed. She's pregnant."

"Rin, pregnant? Oh, shit. Shit. Inuyasha…." Kagome looked pale. "What….what if...he never comes back?"

"We need to find him," Inuyasha said decisively. "He needs to know. He needs to stop taking stupid risks."

"What are you going to do?" Shippo asked. "You have to stay here. For her, and Kagome."

"I'll wait until Koga and the others come back. If they have a trail, I have to go and try to follow it."


	30. Chapter 30

**Nails**

Kazuto had always been able to tell when adults around him were acting like everything was okay when it wasn't. He supposed he'd picked up the ability from observing his own parents when he had asked them if he'd been adopted. They had obviously not wanted him to know the truth at the tender age of seven, but he'd put two and two together after looking at some old photo albums. He was _related_ to his mother...she was technically his aunt. His real mother had died and his real father...well there were no pictures or newspaper clippings about him so Kazuto had only to wonder. He'd asked his parents who his real father was and they responded quickly that they didn't know.

It wasn't long after that that Kazuto had developed some troubling symptoms. He couldn't be hurt badly, no matter how rough he played. His nails seemed to constantly grow into points too stubborn to be filed down for longer than a day or two. He grew more and more reckless and had a hard time holding back his growing strength. Twice he landed friends in the hospital from horseplay.

After the second friend ended up in the ICU with a collapsed lung, Kazuto knew things would change by the new forced cheerfulness his observed in his parents. After assuring him that it was not his fault and that he was not to blame, they retreated to their bedroom and locked the door, leaving him to watch TV on his own and wonder when they would emerge.

The following days were tense and surreal. His mother constantly told him everything was fine, but negative energy radiated off of her in waves. It was worse with his father, who rarely spent any time with Kazuto any longer. It wasn't long before he'd been sent to this school. He hadn't seen his parents since then, and no one at the school had been able to give him any kind of explanation...until this year when Ms. Higurashi exploded in gym class and the truth came out.

Yes, Kazuto was an old pro at recognizing when adults were tense and worried and trying to hide it. For the last few months...ever since principal Taisho took his "vacation", every adult at the school had been on tenterhooks.

It had mellowed out some, Kazuto thought to himself as he watched his teacher draw on the corner of her desk calendar, in the last month or so. A kind of grief had settled on the teachers at the school, but it wasn't as potent as the panic of a few months ago.

The disappearance (for Kazuto was old enough to recognize the "vacation" for what it really was) was affecting Kazuto's teachers in different ways. It had affected Ms. Rin the most. Although she hadn't been a regular teacher at the school, she'd been given the opportunity to teach gardening as a special class. Not all the teachers had time to take their kids to her, since they were trying to make up for the week of unscheduled recess months earlier, but Ms. Higurashi made a point to take her class every day.

Ms. Rin's belly was round, and Kazuto suspected she was pregnant, especially because she had a fruity smell that he associated with babies. Her mood was ever-shifting. Sometimes she was calm and at peace, other times he could sense a black grief in her heart. These were the times Ms. Higurashi hovered close. Kazuto was grateful his classmates were well-behaved in general. Not all of them were as sensible as he was of Ms. Rin's distress, but they managed to wait patiently for her instructions and she seemed to take some solace in showing them how to plant seeds and care for flowers.

Ms. Higurashi's moods also fluctuated, and Kazuto could tell she was eaten up with worry for her friend. They often smelled a little like each other and Kazuto suspected that they slept in the same bed at night. He imagined Ms. Rin crying and Ms. Higurashi comforting her, but tried not to dwell on it. It was an upsetting image.

Kazuto took it on himself to stay close to Ms. Higurashi, nurturing a childlike passion for her in his heart as he had from the first day of school. Mr. Inuyasha had also instructed him specifically to look out for Ms. Higurashi. Kazuto was proud of this role as secret protector, even if he was suspicious of Mr. Inuyasha's motives. He did sometimes smell Ms. Higurashi's warm scent all over Mr. Inuyasha and he didn't particularly like it.

Mr. Inuyasha was the most altered by the change. He had taken over as principal and given the gym teaching job to Mr. Koga, who wasn't a particularly pleasant replacement. He still spent a lot of time in the gym, especially to teach kendo, and Kazuto was able to observe the change in him during classes. Where once he was easily ruffled and slightly immature, now he was grim, serious, and calm. It was like the new leadership role had aged him, and he often appeared as though he hadn't slept much.

The other teachers were tense too. Mr. Shippo was less than his usual cheery self, although he was the best at hiding it. The school was heavily guarded by intimidating-looking figures. _Demons,_ Kazuto reminded himself. Most of the adults at the school were demons, with the exception of Rin and Ms. Higurashi, who were human, and Mr. Inuyasha, who was only half-demon.

Kazuto began to feel nervous, like he did whenever he was reminded of why he was different from regular people, and quickly diverted his thoughts back to the times table he was supposed to be filling in. He made a mark with his pencil and his fingers slipped. A sharpened nail slid down the pencil and buried itself in the wood of his desk. He tugged it back out and looked at the nail.

He sighed. It was time to face reality. It wasn't a nail.

It was a claw.

And if he hoped to protect Ms. Higurashi from whatever was making everyone at the school so scared, he had better learn how to use it.


	31. Chapter 31

**Claws**

 **"** **Correct your stance** , Kazuto," Mr. Inuyasha called. "You can break the rules of form only when you've learned them."

Kazuto brought the kendo sword up and adjusted himself. He'd stayed behind class today, skipping recess for a special lesson with Mr. Inuyasha. They'd been working for nearly an hour.

"That's good kid. Now relax. Come get some water. Kagome would kill me if she found out I was working you this hard. You're her favorite student, you know." Inuyasha waggled his eyebrows playfully and tossed Kazuto a water bottle. Kazuto caught it and brought it to his lips, thrilling inwardly at the thought that Ms. Higurashi thought of him as her favorite student, or talked about him at all. His eyes narrowed a little bit as he wondered suspiciously why Mr. Inuyasha would be having private conversations with Ms. Higurashi. He eyed his instructor darkly, but Inuyasha only chuckled at his student. Kazuto sighed, knowing where he was beat, and decided to ask the question he'd been thinking about for several weeks.

"Uh...Mr, Taisho?" He ventured.

"Just call me Inuyasha kid," the hanyou said with a sigh. "Mr. Taisho is my brother."

"Inu...Sensei?" Kazuto stumbled over the familiarity, which didn't feel quite right to him. It wasn't the first time his instructor had asked him to call him by his name. Inuyasha grinned.

"What is it kid?"

"Could you show me how to use...these?" Kazuto flexed his fingers, claws extended. He'd neglected cutting them for the past few weeks. They were hard and sharp. Inuyasha grew serious. He crouched down in front of Kazuto, giving the claws a professional look.

"Are you sure you're ready for that?" He asked seriously. Kazuto nodded.

Inuyasha stood, and the air seemed to shimmer around him. Suddenly his black hair turned bright silver, and he lifted his own clawed hands.

"One hanyou to another," He said amiably. "I suppose I can show you some things."

 **"** **You did WHAT?"** Kagome said incredulously. Inuyasha flinched and his puppy ears lay flat against his head.

"He just needed a little guidance, that's all. It'll keep him from stabbing someone by accident." He said defensively.

"But you'd already had been whaling on him for like an hour!" Kagome cried. "If you hurt him I'll fucking kill you."

Inuyasha grimaced. It was the first night they'd managed to be alone together in a couple of weeks and it was not going as he would have hoped. He'd snuck into Kagome's room in the school dormitory and waited for her to come back from helping Rin into bed. The women often slept together lately, and while Inuyasha respected Kagome's need to support her friend during this time, he regretted how his new position and her new role as caretaker kept them apart most nights.

"I didn't hurt him. He's a strong kid, and don't forget-he's a hanyou like me. We're tougher than those other little demons you've got in there."

Kagome relented, relaxing a little bit. He face took on a misty look. "You're pretty much head over heels, aren't you?" Inuyasha asked affectionately.

"I guess I am," Kagome said. "I didn't really know I could love anyone this much. Those kids...they're like my babies. I would do anything for them. But that also mean...Inuyasha, I'm scared." She closed the dresser drawer where she'd been tucking away the last of her clean clothes, which had been sitting in the laundry basket all week because she never had time to put anything away. Inuyasha approached her and wrapped his arms around her from behind.

"I know," He murmured into her shoulder. "I'm scared too."

That was as far as their conversations ever got. For a week or two following Sesshomaru's disappearance, they discussed the various possibilities. Where he could be, when he would come back. But as weeks stretched into months and no trail could be turned up, no lead could be found, Kagome and Inuyasha had stopped talking about the Taisho who'd never come home. Neither Sesshomaru nor Naraku (or Kagura, for that matter) could be found. Inuyasha had taken his brother's position, reopened the school, and Kagome had learned to divide her time between her students and an ever-more pregnant Rin.

Her friend's condition worried her. Rin was a strong young woman, Kagome knew. She'd not been raised in a warm household. She'd lost her family at a young age, and Kagome knew that it was something she'd always missed and always wanted. And she'd had it, for a day. Then it was ripped from her, and she was left to nurture a hanyou pregnancy. Left to wonder about what kind of life she would have, cut off from the human world, but not fully a part of the demonic world either.

It didnt help that hanyou pregnancies, at least this one, appeared to be more difficult than the average. Kagome had never been pregnant, and she only had dim memories of her mother's pregnancy with her little brother, so she didn't really have something to compare it to. But Rin's pregnancy seemed to be extremely taxing. For the first ten weeks she'd had trouble keeping anything down, and she'd stayed locked in her dark room, looking green and miserable whenever Kagome had insisted on turning a light on.

Kagome recognized that most of the nausea must be done with, because Rin had stopped constantly vomiting. But she still wouldn't eat, and although her belly grew at an alarming rate, everything else about her seemed to be shrinking.

Kagome was impressed by her friend's strength of will. She'd lost the love of her life mere hours after she'd given herself to him, and now she was left to raise his hanyou child, with very little knowledge of what that would be like. Luckily the school was already full of demons and part-demons, but it wasn't the same as having your mate.

One the few moments, earlier on, when Kagome had dared to speak about the missing taiyukai, Rin had insisted that he was still alive. They were bonded mates and she could still feel the bond. After a few weeks, though, Rin never mentioned Sesshomaru either.

The taiyukai was gone, but his presence loomed large over the school and the people who remained, trying to keep it afloat and safe. Kagome considered Inuyasha as he drew her towards the four-poster bed in the center of the room. He was leaner, with dark circles under his eyes. His silver hair was shaggier than usual, but there was a new bearing to him. He seemed taller, more serious. He'd grown. But he was also tired. _That_ she could see.

"Lay down with me," he said, with a soft smile. Kagome allowed him to lift her shirt and pull it off of her body. She helped him with the button of her jeans, since his claws sometimes made it difficult for him. She helped him out of his clothes, while they were at it, and together they crawled into the large, warm bed. Inuyasha cuddled her close, and she threw a leg over his middle and tucked her head under his chin, lying across the side of his body. It was their favorite position. Kagome loved how she seemed to fit right along his body.

"How's Rin doing?" Inuyasha asked, playing with Kagome's dark hair. She closed her eyes in pleasure as his claws gently raked her scalp.

"She's fine. As fine as she ever is. I can't get her to eat as much as I think she should be eating. Her stomach's growing but she's getting thinner in other places. Her hair falls out when I brush it but I think that might be normal. At least she can keep a vitamin down now."

"God, she was so sick," Inuyasha remembered the weeks when Rin was basically bedridden. One of the nurses, a horse hanyou by the name of Jeninji, had to hook her up to an IV for a while. They couldn't risk removing her to a human hospital, but it was a tense few weeks while they waited for her to recover.

"Mmm, yeah. I hope it's not like that when I…" Kagome's voice fell silent. Inuyasha felt her scent shift through excitement and embarrassment. His heart skipped a beat.

"You're not...you're not pregnant are you?" He asked, astounded. Kagome snorted and smacked him on his bare stomach.

"No, you nincompoop. You'd be the first to know if I were pregnant, remember?"

"Ah, yeah."

"I was just saying...when it happens. I hope it's not as bad as all that. Do you suppose

it's because he's a demon and she's a human? Do you think it was like that for your mother?"

"I don't know babe," Inuyasha said thoughtfully. The thought of Kagome pregnant with his child filled him with fierce emotions. Kagome must have sensed it, because she chuckled softly and eased herself up onto her elbow to look into his face. He reached up and stroked her cheek with the pad of his thumb.

"I love you," He said.

"I love you too," Kagome replied, growing more serious. "Inuyasha?"

"Yeah?"

"What are we going to do?"

"I was hoping we were about to have sex."

She was not to be distracted.

"I mean about...about everything. How can we keep going without….?"

 _Without Sesshomaru,_ Inuyasha silently added for her.

They were silent for a few seconds, and for a moment it seemed like the older taiyukai was in the room with them. Inuyasha thought about his brother's icy calm, and willed his emotions into control.

"I promised my brother that I would protect his mate." He said. "And I have a duty to protect this school."

"Do you think Naraku is still out there?" Kagome asked. Inuyasha shook his head.

"I think they must have killed one another." He said, his voice a little thick. "If he had gotten Sesshomaru, Naraku would have come to gloat. No, Kagome, I don't think either one of them is coming back."

Kagome kept tears back with a mighty sniff, and Inuyasha rubbed her back comfortingly. His insides felt hollow at his declaration. He'd never admitted out loud what was glaringly obvious. That Sesshomaru, Lord of the Western Lands, was dead and never returning home.

 **Two doors** down the hall, Rin lay curled in a fetal position in her bed, cradling her swollen belly in her arms, listening to three heartbeats: her own, her child's.

And her mate's.


	32. Chapter 32

**Onigumo's Desire**

 **Naraku was in** pain.

He remembered this as Onigumo. He remembered the searing, all-encompassing agony of the burns. This was worse. It was as though the limits of his soul were being stretched and snapped and wrung out.

Ages passed. Days, weeks, months. He wasn't sure. The effort of keeping himself together was too great to notice the time. He was literally holding himself together at the seams, as if he could burst, shattering into a million tiny pieces if he lost concentration.

Onigumo's pain had not been greater than this, but it had had the same quality of torture. He had laid up in that cave, willing and ready to die, each breath agony….until she came.

 _Kikyo._

Her name settled in his mind like a leaf on a pond. Kikyo had been there, had taken pity on him. He'd loved her, lusted after her, wanted her. He'd sold his soul for her, but when he realized the prize she carried and protected, his soul had betrayed him.

Kikyo! Why had he not considered her before! Once before, hundreds of years ago, she'd cared for his human self in that dank cave, the place where he'd crawled after being burned nearly to death, convinced death would greet him there. But she had found him, nursed him back to health, visited with him.

He'd known he would never walk again. He'd known his face would never recover. He'd known that she, as a priestess, was untouchable. But he'd made the exchange anyway. Impassioned by his love her Kikyo, he'd sold his soul to millions of lower demons, who inhabited and reinvigorated his body at the expense of his soul. He wore a new face, a handsome face, and with it he sought to win the heart of the priestess.

But once the demons had taken over, and he had changed from Onigumo to Naraku...his priorities changed. Once sniff of the stark purity inhabiting Kikyo's soul and Naraku knew she carried something more precious to him than her body. She carried the sacred jewel, and she was employing its power for some purpose-to hide someone, perhaps?

It hadn't taken long to deduce what she was hiding, and although the small part of him that was still Onigumo grieved for the loss of Kikyo, Naraku the hanyou cut her down without a second thought to her life, lusting instead for the jewel which would give him power over all demons and part-demons.

In his half-conscious state, ruined and alone, her face lit up in his imagination. Her pale skin, black hair, dark eyes. In his mind she was enveloped in soft pink light, as she had been the moment he'd taken her life. No, Kikyo could not save him now...he'd dispatched her long ago. But perhaps there was someone who still carried her soul, and the jewel, and the power to set him on the throne he deserved.

Naraku marshalled his will, urging his sickly, oozing tentacles to reform into the semblance of a body. Every since he had absorbed the taiyukai, every breath had been a struggle not to burst apart. Sesshomaru was eating away at him like an acid. If Naraku did not find a way to overcome the power of the demon Lord, he had no doubt that Sesshomaru could tear him apart from the inside out.

Naraku spared a thought for Kagura, who had betrayed him by fleeing, but who had also given him the information he would need to save his own life.

Kagome, her name was Kagome.

" **Kagome, really,** you can stop fussing." Rin said, shrugging out of the coat. "It's not that cold outside."

"You were always fussing over what _I_ was wearing," Kagome responded, affecting a hurt tone. "And you won't let me fuss over you?"

"I fussed over what you were wearing because you were always about to go out in something ridiculous. Or with your bra showing. Or with your underwear on the outside of your clothing."

"Once, that happened once!" Kagome insisted, lifting her hands in mock surrender. "And you'll NEVER let me live it down!"

Rin chuckled, a welcome sound to Kagome. Her best friend in the world had been managing an unexpected, especially difficult pregnancy on top of losing the love of her life...and everything else in her life. Neither Kagome nor Rin had been able to return to their home in six months. Rin had been unable to support her business and had lost several clients. Inuyasha had hired Rin as a part-time teacher and paid her for full-time work through the school accounts. He had confided in Kagome of Sesshomaru's last request, that his mate be taken care of. He and Kagome knew they would need to be there, to help Rin raise her child, who would be hanyou just like Inuyasha.

But right now the child was nothing more than a swell in Rin's belly. Over the last two months Kagome had been working harder to tempt Rin's appetite, making sure that lots of snacks were always nearby the pregnant woman. It was working, at least in part. Much of the gauntness was gone from Rin's face and she had started to fill out the way Kagome figured a pregnant woman should. She was beautiful, but still too sad for Kagome's liking. Of course, Kagome was sad herself. But she'd managed to put her sadness away, like a book on a shelf she wasn't ready to read yet. Sometimes, when she was alone or after Inuyasha had fallen asleep, she would take the book and leaf through it, remembering her life before all of this disruption, her family (who had been warned not to return from Japan) and the simpler times when the biggest worry on her mind was whether or not a certain sexy gym teacher had the hots for her. She tried not to cry, learning quickly that tears often woke the hanyou in bed next to her, whose sleepy concern only made the tears worse. More than once Inuyasha had woken to find her crying and had to soothe her to sleep, stroking her hair and giving her soft kisses. Kagome felt guilty for her displays of weakness, for Inuyasha was being remarkably resilient through all of this. He was stonier than she'd ever known him, although to be fair, she hadn't known him that long.

"It's nice to see you smiling," Kagome said, risking a slight relapse into depression but unable to stop herself from saying it. Rin's face fell a little bit. She looked at her friend seriously.

"I'm sorry," she said. Kagome shook her head and looped her arm through Rin's, steering her around the garden where they'd planned to take a walk in the early spring air.

"You don't need to be sorry Rin," She said softly. "I understand. This has been terrible for everyone."

"I should have been stronger," Rin said, her voice growing thick. Kagome tightened her hold.

"You've done what you needed to do. You survived. And look at you now….Rin," Kagome hesitated, then finished her thought, saying, "Sesshomaru would be very proud of you, and more in love with you than ever if he could see you carrying his child now."

Rin's face crumpled in tears. Kagome stopped their progress and wrapped her arms around her friend, cooing softly to her. Rin sobbed for a minute or two, then wiped her face. "I'm sorry," Kagome said, "I didn't want to make you upset."

"I needed to cry," Rin responded, sniffling loudly. "The thing is….I'm crying because I'm confused. Kagome, I know you and Inuyasha think he's not coming back but...I can still _feel_ him. The way I could since the night we mated. How could I feel that if he's...if he's dead?"

"I don't know," Kagome answered, helping Rin to sit down on a stone bench. The wolf demons Inuyasha had sent after them drew in a few steps closer. "Inuyasha's not so sure about mating, especially when it comes to humans and demons together. He talked to some of the other demons but no one is really sure what that could mean."

"Couldn't it mean that he's alive?" Rin asked in a small voice, not looking at Kagome.

"If he were alive…" Kagome wasn't sure how best to go about this, but she thought it might not be healthy for Rin to live in constant limbo. "If he were alive, I don't think anything could have stopped him from coming to you. If he could, he would be here. And Rin...god, Rin, I'm so sorry. He's not here. Inuyasha doesn't think he's coming home."

"I know," Rin heaved a ragged sigh, and smiled tremulously. "But I'm not ready. He's still alive for me, in my mind, in my heart. So I'm going to believe that's true. At least for now. I don't want to raise the baby alone."

"You won't be alone, no matter what happens," Kagome promised. "Inuyasha is honor bound to protect you and help raise your child, and I'll be there too. You will always have a family with us."

Rin nodded, her hands running along the swell of her baby bump. After a few moments of silence, she smiled a little pointedly and nudged Kagome.

"Speaking of family, when are you and Inuyasha going to do it?"

"Do what? It? We've already done it. Repeatedly. Although not as often as we'd like…"

"No, I mean become mates."

"Oh, that."

"Yeah. I don't see a mark anywhere. I'm no demon, but it seems like the two of you are holding back. I hope it's not for me."

"No," Kagome sighed. "I wanted to at first, and Inuyasha really wants to...but I chickened out."

"You don't want to be with him?"

"I do! I love him. But what happens in a few years when it's not so new and exciting anymore? I don't want him to rush into anything. I'm human, so I think I may not be as bound to is as he is...but dog demons are very loyal. If he mates with me, he may not have a chance to be with anyone else."

"You want him to be with other people?"

"No, it's just that I don't want him to feel like he has to slam that door shut so soon after meeting me."

Rin just smiled and shook her head. She wasn't blind. Inuyasha had been crazy for Kagome almost since the day he met her. There would be no regret, no wanting other women, for him. But she felt that it might sound churlish to point it out so she kept her peace.

After a few more minutes of quiet, peppered with some small talk about the approach of spring and warmer weather, the two women got up from the bench and made their way back to the dormitory building.

They were watched by the three guards Inuyasha usually sent after them.

But Onigumo was watching too.


	33. Chapter 33

**Hanyou and Demon**

 **Sesshomaru was in** pain.

As a warrior, he had felt pain many times. He'd been wounded many times and had sustained the aches and pains of living a warrior's life for centuries. He knew emotional pain too, from the loss of his father to the desertion of his brother, to the murder and terrible abuse of his former mate. But what he felt inside Naraku's body was greater than any of this. He was torn apart, shredded into pieces, bubbling like acid, with only his mind to keep himself together. Every moment of his existence, which he felt was a very thin indeed, was spent in fighting the absorption of his body. He pushed back on Naraku's dark abilities with his own strengths. He fought with the power of his will, the sizzling burn of his acid, the sharpness of his claws, and the strength of his resolve to see Rin again.

He had no sense of time, suspended as he was in a new, viscus world of evil. He shared some of Naraku's awareness, when the evil hanyou was not careful enough to guard his mind. Other than those brief flashes of images, Sesshomaru had very few coherent thoughts. His mind was wholly engulfed in the effort to stay alive, to stay himself. Every thought, every heartbeat, every cell in his body was a colossal effort to resist becoming a part of Naraku. For a time Sesshomaru forgot anything but the pain, and the rage at feeling his very self seep into nothingness. Holding his thoughts became like holding water in cupped hands. They drained away, no matter how tightly he held to them.

Sesshomaru forgot who he was, or even why he was fighting it. He forgot that there was any world outside of the pain and torture, outside of the tremendous effort to remain a separate being from the vile creature who surrounded him on every side. Time slid by, sometimes like the lash of a whip, cracking and speeding up, or suddenly slowing to a crawl. Sesshomaru couldn't see, couldn't smell, couldn't taste. He felt that he was nothing but a soul, suspended in the mass of writhing demons Naraku called a body. It hurt. It hurt so much. He couldn't imagine what life had been like before this pain. Earlier, he wanted to die. But a time came when his mind could not longer hold the concept of death, and even that truth slipped away from him.

But it all changed when an image from Naraku's mind slipped into his own, reminding him of why he was fighting to stay alive to begin with.

It was Kagome's face.

Sesshomaru felt the surge of hope in Naraku's heart and understood. The evil hanyou was going to try to get the jewel. It had been reborn in Kagome. It was the source of her power.

Revived at least in part, Sesshomaru began stitching himself back together. If Naraku felt less pain because he wasn't resisting as much, it was no matter. He would be free of him soon, because Sesshomaru knew that wherever Kagome was, there Rin was too, and would die himself before he would let Naraku touch his mate.

Piece by piece, Sesshomaru reassembled himself, chanting her name over and over again in his mind.

 _Rin._

 **Kazuto was the first** one to sense it, even out of all the guard demons. The barrier was being tested, prodded. He stopped in his tracks, halfway through a move during his extra kendo practice with Inuyasha. The other hanyou cocked his head at him for a moment, until the sensation reached him too and his golden eyes widened.

"Hold on, kid," He said, pulling a walkie-talkie out of his back pocket. He exchanged a curt few words over the device and grabbed his red leather jacket, shrugging it over his T-shirt. He smiled tightly at Kazuto, who looked back at him with narrowed eyes. "It's fine," He said. "Somebody must have-"

Kazuto never figured out what somebody must have done, because before Inuyasha was done speaking the world exploded.

At least that's what it felt like. Kazuto shook his head to clear it, and opened his eyes. An explosion. There must have been an explosion. He was lying on his side and his head hurt. Something wet trickled down his face and he touched it, brought it to his face to look at it. Blood. He was bleeding from his ears. He couldn't hear anything. His vision was fuzzy, but he could make out the red image of Inuyasha. He was pinned under a slab of cement, which must have ripped itself out of the ground. The older hanyou was yelling, his face red with rage and desperation. Kazuto followed his line of sight. They'd been on the main courtyard behind the school, standing on the stone patio where most students played basketball. Closer to the dormitory lay the main garden, the one Ms. Rin had spend so much time repairing and working on. Why was Inuyasha so upset about the garden?

Then a pair of scents wafted up to Kazuto and he understood. Ms. Higurashi was in that garden with Ms. Rin. Kazuto looked down, blinking furiously and trying to get his breath back. He rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself up, staggering over to try to help Inuyasha, who was unable to release his own leg. As soon as he reached him, though, Kazuto recoiled. Inuyasha wasn't being held down by the slab of patio that had burst from the ground. Slimy tentacles wrapped around Inuyasha from the waist down, holding him in place where he was. More tentacles wrapped around his arms, holding his claws away.

Golden eyes found Kazuto, and the young boy stared back seriously. Inuyasha spoke into the ringing in Kazuto's ears. He couldn't hear him, but it didn't matter. He understood.

Kazuto brought his bloodied hand up and cracked his knuckles. Newly sharpened claws ready for work.


	34. Chapter 34

**The Battle**

 **Kagome and Rin** both felt the sudden intrusion of the barrier, but not in enough time to try and stop it. As Kagome was steering Rin from the garden back to the dormitory, thinking the pregnant woman could use a nap, the ground split with a deafening explosion. Rin and Kagome were both thrown off their feet, ears ringing.

"Rin! Rin!" Kagome yelled, blinking dust out of her eyes to look for her friend. Rin was lying on her side, wincing. Kagome scrabbled over to her, hands scraping on uneven concrete. She could hear Inuyasha screaming in the distance, but making sure Rin was okay was her priority. She knelt beside her stricken friend. "Are you okay?"

Rin nodded, her face tight. She was holding onto her belly.

"I think I hurt my back, but I'm okay. I'm okay," She breathed, moving one hand to wipe her face.

"Okay let's get you up then," Kagome said, relieved to see demons coming out of the dormitory. A red-headed Shippo was leading the pack, and she waved him over. He was at their side in a second.

"You need to get Rin inside," Kagome gasped, feeling the ground shake again. "I can feel something…"

"Okay, but are you alright?" Shippo asked nervously. He had lifted Rin and was already backing away. Kagome looked down. She was beginning to glow.

"That's not a good sign," She mumbled. "Shippo, just go."

"NARAKU!" Came Inuyasha's yell, just in time for Kagome to whip around and see the dark hanyou taking a leisurely stroll through the garden to see her. Shippo growled and crouched, but Kagome snapped at him.

"Shippo get the fuck out of here with Rin!" She yelled, and he glared at her but turned back to the dormitory. "GET AWAY FROM ME!" Kagome yelled again, raising her voice for Naraku but also for the other demons who'd crowded around, ready for the fight. She couldn't use her powers if she was nervous about injuring one of them.

The other demons backed off, able to sense the dangerous sizzle of Kagome's purification powers. Kagome fixed her gaze on Naraku, ignoring even Inuyasha's desperate yells. She couldn't see around Naraku to determine what was keeping her lover from her side, but she was glad he wasn't quite in range.

Naraku looked terrible, she thought vaguely as she summoned up her power. His face, which might have been handsome, was drawn and ragged, with deep lines and scratches, as though he'd been mutilated by a cat recently. He looked malevolently at her with red eyes, assessing her. He was dressed in rags, and slimy tentacles protruded from his shoulder blades to form the shape of wings behind him. Kagome crouched in readiness, palms up, lip curling in disgust. So this was the creature who had undone Sesshomaru.

Kagome inhaled deeply through her nose and exhaled forcefully, blowing as much power as she could outward. Her purification power formed a pink dome, encompassing her and the dormitory behind her. She glowered at Naraku.

"That's no use against me, Kikyo," Naraku said with a sneer. "I could walk right through it if I chose."

"No you couldn't," Kagome said, voice strained with the effort of holding up the dome. "The most powerful parts of you will cease to exist if you try to walk through my barrier.

Naraku laughed, but he also sounded strained.

"That may be true, but we won't have to test that theory, will we? Because you will only

be able to hold that barrier up for a few more seconds."

He was right. Kagome felt the power around her fizzle and sputter. In the blink of an eye, the barrier dropped. Kagome managed to get two bright bursts of purification power off before running for her life. They bought her just a few moments. She threw herself behind a fallen bench. The guards who had dropped away at the sight of her pink power closed in around her. It was Koga, and his packmates Ginta and Hakkaku. The bright-eyed wolf demon winked at her despite the seriousness of the situation.

"We've got you, girl," he said with a wolfish grin.

"Inuyasha!" She gasped. "He's back there somewhere. We can't defeat Naraky-"

Kagome was cut off as a throng of tentacles burst through the cement bench they were hiding behind and sent them flying. Koga managed to snatch Kagome out of the air and cushion her fall, but as he landed she heard him hissing.

She looked down at his hands where they wrapped around her waist. They were burnt. Her skin was glowing.

"Get away!" She said, shoving him hard. "I can't-"

Koga yelled and scrambled to keep a hold of her, but Naraku's tentacles wrapped themselves around Kagome's waist and lifted her away from him. Kagome felt a brief moment of relief before the tentacles sucked her in and she was nose to nose with Naraku.

"You are one slippery bitch, aren't you?" He hissed into her face. "No matter. I will take what is mine right now."

Kagome shrieked in pain as Naraku shoved a knife into her side, just above her hipbone. Her shrieks rose in urgency, tearing out of her throat, as a smaller tentacles forced its way inside of her, searching for she knew not what.

Kagome's breath was ragged, and she gagged and sputtered as the tentacle tore at her inside. Tears streamed down her face, clouding her vision, until finally with a sickening sound, the tentacle retracted, having pulled something small, round, and glowing from her body.

Kagome was having trouble keeping conscious, but she was aware enough to know that the object was dangerous in Naraku's hands. She struggled feebly. Ginta and Hakkaku attached from both sides and were rebuffed violently with tentacles. Blood poured from Kagome's wound and she felt like the world was closing in on her. She could no longer see anything but Naraku's face, lit with awe and excitement.

Suddenly Naraku's face flinched, and he looked around in annoyance. Kagome struggled to keep her eyes open, only able to catch glimpses of Naraku's irritated face. The glowing orb was stowed somewhere on his person as he turned to see what had disturbed him. The next time Kagome managed to open her eyes she saw a flash of black and a swipe of claws. She was released from her hold and tumbled helplessly to the ground. She heard the thick, smacking sound of her body hitting the ground, but she didn't feel it. _That's not a good sign,_ she thought to herself.

Someone had cut her free, was crouching over her form in a distinctive style. For a moment Kagome thought it was Inuyasha, because the person was positioned so much like he would be during training. But this person was small, too small, and dark-haired. With a jolt of fear Kagome realized who it was.

"Kazuto," she croaked in horror. "Kazuto run!"

"No ma'am," Kazuto said, cracking his knuckles much like Inuyasha had done. He shook his shaggy black hair, and a pair of soft, downy black ears became visible on the top of his head. "I'm going to protect you."

"I'm supposed to protect _you!_ " Kagome protested.

"Then we can protect each other," Kazuto said. "The other demons have fallen back."

Kagome understood what he meant, even if Naraku didn't. The hanyou took a swipe at the small half-demon, but Kazuto dodged lightly. He turned long enough to lock eyes with his teacher. "Let it go, Ms. Higurashi," He said.

Kagome closed her eyes and brought forth the strongest blast of purification power she'd ever summoned before. It blew out from her small frame like a pink hurricane. She saw Kazuto flinch and Naraku cower, but unconsciousness claimed her before she could see the results of the power she'd released. She collapsed again on the ground and knew only darkness.


	35. Chapter 35

**A/N: This isn't as long as I'd like, but I wanted to get a chapter up because I know it's been a while. More to come towards the end of the week!**

 **Power on the Inside**

Sesshomaru felt the pink power buffet against his captor with the force of a great wind. It sizzled sickeningly and he knew a moment of rage that he would end his thousand-year life as mere collateral damage. He laughed softly to himself, in his formless state. Thousand-year life? It had already been over. He was not truly alive anymore, was he?

He watched the glow penetrate the cracks and sinews of Naraku's form, which surrounded him like a sick cocoon. It was the first light he'd been able to perceive since he'd been absorbed by the dark hanyou. He watched it dispassionately, as it grew stronger. Flecks of Naraku's body seemed to flake away, or tear off violently, and Sesshomaru caught a glimpse of color. Was that the outside? The afterlife? Oh, how had he forgotten about color!

Suddenly, through the opening, a sensation wafted in. A scent. Like taking a breath for the first time in months, which in a way was what he was doing, Sesshomaru took in the scent. It hit him like a punch to the gut. _Rin._

He wasn't looking at the afterlife. The miko's power was damaging Naraku's body. Rin was out there, and he had a chance to get to her.

Sesshomaru gathered his soul, which was all he felt he had left, and forced his mind to push _outward._ With a deafening roar, with fangs flashing and silver hair flying, poison bursting from every cell of himself, Sesshomaru took back the body that had been taken from him, shredding the imposter from the inside out. He fought and howled and slashed and bit and tore until there was nothing left, until he wasn't even sure if he existed anymore either.

When his mind returned to him, he was standing barefoot on concrete, with the sun on his bare back and his hair sticking to the back of his neck. He breathed in greedy gulps of fresh air. His skin tingled, feeling stretched and uncomfortable like it had been scrubbed too thoroughly.

 _Sesshomaru!_

Someone was calling his name. A familiar voice.

 _Sesshomaru!_

Who was it? He wanted to turn around, but he didn't know how. He tried to place the voice.

 _Sesshomaru! FUCKING GODDAMN IT SHE'S GOING TO DIE_!

Ah. That would be Inuyasha.

Inuyasha.

His brother.

The taiyoukai managed to turn, and he managed to open his eyes, and he managed to see what lay before him.

The miko was lying on the concrete, limp and pale. Another still form, a smaller one, lay near her. It was stirring. Inuyasha was holding Kagome around the middle, where her shirt seemed to have been torn away. He was weeping. Strange. Sesshomaru had never known his brother to weep. Why was he holding her like that?

Sesshomaru moved closer, feeling sluggish and thick-headed. His hands dripped in something. Was it blood? Yes, he did smell a lot of blood. Human blood.

His golden eyes narrowed at this realization, and he shifted to try to catch a glimpse around Inuyasha's hands. He almost wished he hadn't. The silver-haired hanyou was holding her together. Her body had been grievously ripped apart, and blood seeped out of her in a steady flow. Sesshomaru sighed, hearing Inuyasha's ragged cries. She wasn't going to die. She was already dead.

Demons appeared as if out of nowhere and Sesshomaru suddenly found himself supported on one side by a tearful Shippo.

"Good to have you back, boss," He said. He winced as Inuyasha shrieked at the demons trying to ease him away from Kagome's body. A solemn Jinenji picked up the body of the small boy, who'd been purified into unconsciousness. Sesshomaru caught a glimpse of Kazuto's claws as he passed by; they were covered in blood. His whole hands were red.

Inuyasha clung to Kagome, burying his nose in the curve of her neck. His demonic energy swirled dangerously, causing the demons around him to shift back. He looked up at Sesshomaru with fierce eyes, and the brothers understood one another.

"Shippo," Sesshomaru said, "Bring me Tenseiga."


	36. Chapter 36

**Waking Up**

 **Pain radiated through** Kagome's frame in several long waves. She was cold, but she had no body. She could hear Inuyasha screaming her name. What was happening? She wanted to answer him, but she had no voice.

The pain was receding, but so was the voice of her lover. She couldn't feel anything; not the ground underneath her body, not the blood pouring out of her wound, not the hands of her mate as he desperately tried to keep her in this life.

This life.

 _Oh shit I'm dead…._

 **Inuyasha waited, breathless** , for Shippo to return with the sword. He kept his eyes on the woman he loved, the silence of her heart tearing through him like a knife. He had never been so afraid. He knew that if tenseiga did not want to revive Kagome, it wouldn't. The sword had a mind of its own and couldn't be counted upon. But it was their only hope.

Kagome's face was pale, gray, and ashen. She'd died full of fear and pain, blasting the area with enough purification energy to destroy even Naraku's human side. Sesshomaru must only have survived being at the epicenter of the explosion because he hadn't really been alive before it hit. Someone had taken the limp form of Kazuto away. Inuyasha shook with grief, terrified that even if Kagome survived, she would never forgive herself if Kazuto didn't make it. He'd been alive when Inuyasha had reached them, but Inuyasha wasn't sure such a small half-demon could survive such a raw display of power. He had been hundreds of yards away and the power had hit him like a freight train. He'd been knocked straight off of his feet. Kazuto had been right next to her, having abandoned his efforts to free Inuyasha from Naraku's tentacles and rushing to Kagome's side once he realized that Naraku was going to attack her. Inuyasha had managed to free himself, but not in time to get to them.

The hanyou stretched out a bloody hand and wiped Kagome's bangs from her face. He hadn't even managed to mark her yet. They'd talked about it, but they had decided to wait a few days so that Inuyasha could ask Sesshomaru more about it. Then Sesshomaru had never returned, and neither one of them had brought it up again.

Grief choked the silver-haired half-demon. Tears made tracks down his dirty face, and he bent his head to Kagome's neck to try to smell her scent. It was fading. She was gone.

"Move aside, Inuyasha."

The voice was calm, but raspy, as though it had not been used in a long time. Inuyasha glanced up at his newly returned brother, squinting at him through teary eyes. Sesshomaru nodded encouragingly at him. Inuyasha slowly lay his woman down and backed away from her, still on hands and knees. Sesshomaru drew tenseiga, the blade's vibrations ringing in the air. A hush fell among the demons gathered there. The taiyoukai swept his blade, now humming with power, three times over the prone form of Kagome. He sheathed the blade then, and waited. Inuyasha crept forward again and lay his hand against Kagome's cheek. Her eyelashes fluttered. His heart jolted and he cried out in joy, making a sound between and sob and a bark. He looked down at her body, which was still bloody but completely healed.

"''Yasha?" Kagome mumbled, before opened her eyes experimentally.

"I'm here," The hanyou said, his voice rough with emotion. He held her face in his hands. She smiled up at him.

"I was just thinking about you," She said, a little blearily. "I was hoping you would be here when I woke up."

"I'll always be here for you baby," Inuyasha said, smiling.

"Am I still dead?" Kagome asked.

"No, Sesshomaru brought you back."

"Tenseiga brought you back," Sesshomaru corrected.

Kagome's eyes grew wide suddenly.

"Kazuto!" She gasped, and struggled to get up. "Is Kazuto alright? Where is he? He came to save me, and oh my god what if I killed him?"

"Kagome, it's okay," Inuyasha reasoned. "He was alive when I got here. Jinenji took him inside."

"I have to see him," Kagome sputtered, getting to her feet with Inuyasha's help. "Right now. Take me to him."

Inuyasha glanced up at Shippo. "Where is he?"

"He's in the infirmary with Rin." Shippo said. "I saw them when I went to get the sword."

"Good, Sesshomaru, you'll probably...what the fuck?" Inuyasha looked around but his brother was nowhere to be seen.

 **The infirmary was** not the most welcoming room Rin had ever been in. She was beside herself with worry, but the usually affable horse-hanyou Jinenji was being unusually reticent with his information. He'd kept her there for what Rin assumed was the battle with Naraku, checking her vitals and listening to make sure the baby was okay. He'd been singed slightly when a blast of Kagome's power pulsed through the room, and he'd disappeared soon after to check on everything outside. Rin would have followed him out but the infirmary was also beginning to fill with sick and scared children brought up by other sick and scared demons, all of them feeling the effects of the purification. She'd stayed to help console the kids and bandage the worst of their burns, which weren't particularly bad. Some adults trickled in with nasty abrasions, and Rin had been working with some of these when Jinenji returned with the limp form of Kazuto.

Rin was no doctor...hell, she was a botanist, but it didn't take a doctor to tell that Kazuto was badly hurt. He was burned on one side of his body and one ear was singed off completely (Rin had never known Kazuto to have puppy ears similar to Inuyasha's, but she supposed she could ask questions later). He was unconscious and barely breathing.

Rin stood by and held Kazuto's good hand while Jinenji worked on him, bandaging the burns and using a strong-smelling concoction to try to wake him up. Some color returned to his face but he didn't wake. Jinenji seemed pleased in spite of it. He smiled at Rin cautiously.

"Is he going to be okay?" She asked.

"I think he'll survive. His demonic energy was badly wounded, but he's got unusually tough _youki_ for a hanyou. He reminds me of Inuyasha that way." Jinenji said softly.

Shippo ran by but didn't stop to talk. Rin got up and made as though to leave. Jinenji stopped her with a gentle hand on her wrist, suddenly looking worried.

"Better stay in here with me," He said.

"Why? No, I want to see what happened." Rin said. Jinenji shook his head.

"There will be plenty of time for that. Don't...don't rush down there. Give yourself some time."

Rin stared back at him, astonished. What did he mean? Had someone died? Why would she need time?

Before she could decide what to do, a tall figure in the doorway caught her eye, and she nearly dropped to her knees in shock.


	37. Chapter 37

**Reunions**

Sesshomaru stood in the doorway, taking in the stricken look of his mate. His eyes traveled greedily over her face, the memory of which had kept his soul intact under the worst possible circumstances. Needing to return to her had been his reason for staying alive, and now she was here. Her face was beautiful, more beautiful than he remembered. There were her big, brown eyes, her thick wavy hair, her nose, her full lips, her strong jaw. Her face was slightly fuller than he remembered, but only slightly. His eyes left hers for just a moment and flicked downwards, wanting to take in the sight of her full form.

But it was so much fuller than he remembered!

Her scent hit him then, a distracting mix of fear and shock and joy, but with a heady undertone that spoke to the deepest part of his demonic senses. He found his voice, looking back into her eyes, which had filled with tears. She covered her mouth with her hands.

"Rin….you are pupped." He said, astonished. She nodded, her eyes crinkling in something close to a smile. Sesshomaru found his feet and stepped forward. Rin, seeing how shaky he was, rushed forward to him.

The Lord of the West fell to his knees before the woman he loved, the human who had captured his heart. Her hands wound into his glossy, silver hair as he touched her swollen belly wonderingly. He could hear the heartbeat of the pup inside of her.

Crying, scent solidifying into whirling joy, Rin sank to her knees to be embraced by her mate. She buried her head into his chest as his arms held her tightly. She wrapped her own arms around his neck, trying to control her sobs.

"Sess….Sesshomaru...how?" She gasped, leaning back to take his face into her hands. He shook his head slightly, too overwhelmed to formulate an answer to that question.

"I love you," He said instead, although that really might have been the answer to her question.

"I waited for you," Rin said. "I knew you weren't gone."

"I know."

"And now you're back? You're okay?"

"Yes. I am recovered."

"And...you'll stay with me? With the baby?"

Sesshomaru wrinkled his brow, confused.

"Of course I will," he said sternly, "That is my pup, and you are my mate. I will protect

both of you forever."

Rin laughed softly.

"I know, it's just… I know this is new for you. I've had six months to get used to the idea of being a mother…"

"Rin," Sesshomaru interrupted. "I'm not sure you understand about my instincts. You are speaking as though you expect me not to be pleased with the situation."

"Your instincts?" Rin asked.

"I am a dog youkai. You know I have strong instincts when it comes to mating."

"And what were those instincts?" Rin asked, although her sly smile hinted that she already knew the answer. Sesshomaru didn't see it though, since he was glancing down at her belly.

"To see you pupped!" He said with some feeling. "Now no one can dispute that you are mine. You will be a good mother, a strong mother."

Rin didn't respond to this display of doggish possessiveness, but leaned forward to brush his lips with her own. Sesshomaru kissed her gently at first, but soon the kiss turned deeper, and they had to pull away from each other lest they should reveal themselves embarrassingly in front of Jinenji.

Sesshomaru helped his mate to her feet just as Kagome burst into the infirmary. Sesshomaru swept Rin aside protectively as the taller girl swept through in a hurry, Inuyasha following helplessly in her wake.

"Kazuto!" She gasped breathlessly. Jinenji stood up from his seat and rushed to grab

Kagome before she clobbered the small child.

"He's fine! He's fine!" He said, as Kagome struggled to reach the little hanyou. "Just be gentle with him!"

Kagome shook Jinenji off and made her way to Kazuto's bedside. Her eyes filled with tears to see his burns and bruises, and noted with a tragic jolt of her heart that one soft, downy kitten ear was torn clean off. She reached down and touched his face. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes. Jinenji smiled, relieved.

"Miss….Miss Higurashi?" Kazuto croaked.

"Hey sweetie," Kagome said through her tears.

"Are you okay?" Kazuto asked. "Are you hurt?"

"No hon," Kagome said. "You did a good job protecting me. I'm okay. You're the one who got hurt. I'm so sorry."

"I'm fine," Kazuto said, although his grimace spoke much more for him than his voice. Kagome's heart clenched painfully.

"Did you get it?" Kazuto continued.

"Get what?"

"The thing Naraku was after," Kazuto said. "I don't know what it was but he pulled it out of you with his tentacles. It looked like a pearl."

Kagome looked up and at Inuyasha. He shrugged. Then she looked over at Sesshomaru, whose expression was more forbidding. Sesshomaru glanced at Shippo, who had come in behind Inuyasha. Shippo shook his head, his mouth in a tight line.

"It's gone." He said. "The tentacles disappeared too."

Sesshomaru sighed. "Then we may face another battle."

"Another battle?" Asked Inuyasha. "What the hell do you mean?"

"The jewel which Kagome carried has tremendous power, brother," Sesshomaru said. "Surely you remember it was Kikyo's destiny to protect it."

Inuyasha's face reddened slightly but he held his ground. "I remember that it was your job to dispose of it after she died." He said tightly.

"It was burned with her body," Sesshomaru said, "But reborn in Kagome's, for she is Kikyo's soul reincarnated."

Kagome brushed aside this knowledge with an impatient shrug.

"You're saying this jewel has power to revive Naraku?"

"It may, but I can't know for sure."

"If it's gone, that's not a good sign." Shippo added.

"But Naraku was blasted to smithereens!" Inuyasha exclaimed. "Surely he couldn't survive that, jewel or not!"

"I don't think he could," Sesshomaru agreed. "I was inside him and I felt him ripped apart."

"But we'll never know?" Kagome asked, with a sinking feeling in her gut.

"We must be on our guard," Sesshomaru said with a nod. "But perhaps the danger has passed."


	38. Chapter 38

**Nonverbal Answers**

Jinenji settled Kazuto back down with a sleeping draft, so that he could heal faster. Rin was feeling tired and overwhelmed, Sesshomaru could tell. He guided her gently down the hall to his abandoned room, where he discovered to his delight she'd already been living. She wanted him to come in and lie down with her, but he had too many things to see to now that he was back. Many of the demons and older students would want to talk to him, and he had to speak with Inuyasha about what had happened in the months of his absence, and what they would do now to secure the school and the students.

Kagome decided to lie down with Rin, although it took some convincing to get her to even leave the infirmary to begin with. She obviously didn't want to leave Kazuto and agreed to go only under the condition that someone come and get her the moment he was awake.

Sesshomaru kissed Rin discretely at the door, while Kagome and Inuyasha were sharing a much more, er, _enthusiastic_ display in the hallway behind him. Kagome scooted past Sesshomaru and squealed as Inuyasha pinched her butt. Sesshomaru rolled his eyes and stepped back, allowing the blushing girl into the room. He closed the door securely and turned to face his brother.

Inuyasha and Sesshomaru stared at each other for a few minutes, neither one sure of what to say now that they were alone together. Sesshomaru decided to start with something safe.

"I see you have kept things running here."

"Yeah," Inuyasha said, rubbing his neck. "It was about a week before we realized you may not come back, and we had to decide what to do. I just did what I thought you would do."

"So you kept the school open."

"I took over as principal. Koga, that bastard, took over for me in the gym. I took some time out to train some of the more advanced kids. We gave Rin a job teaching in the garden. It kept her mind off things, well, as much as it could."

"How was she?"

Inuyasha dropped his voice a little bit.

"She wasn't great. At first, she didn't believe you were gone. She kept saying she would know if you were dead. Then, when it was clear you weren't coming back anytime soon, she walked around like a zombie. Kagome had to sleep in there with her most nights."

Sesshomaru's chest felt tight, thinking of Rin in such distress over him.

"But you took care of her," He said tightly.

"She's pack, right? She's family. Kagome and I...we were in it for the long haul."

"You would have raised my pup?"

Inuyasha looked at Sesshomaru with a determined gaze, one the taiyoukai had not seen before. He looked more...dignified...than Inuyasha had ever looked before.

"Yes." He said, drawing himself up. "Your pup will be hanyou, like me. My blood, my brother's child. I would never have left it to anyone else."

Sesshomaru nodded. Another silence fell for a few moments. Sesshomaru broke it.

"Thank you." He said. "I'm proud of you, brother."

Inuyasha didn't respond. He simply stepped forward and offered his hand. Sesshomaru took it. After a manfully restrained handshake, Inuyasha threw his arms around his brother. Sesshomaru was taken by surprise, but decided that if he couldn't stand a hug from his idiot kid brother after being nearly absorbed into Naraku, he wasn't worth anything.

The hanyou was a little red faced when he backed away, and Sesshomaru did his best to restrain his own emotions.

"It's good to have you back, Sess." Inuyasha said gruffly. "I was….you are such a bastard, but I thought you were dead."

"It's good to be back." Sesshomaru responded, rubbing at his eyes with one hand. Something was stinging him there. How irritating.

Without another word, the brothers turned back down the hallway towards the main room, where dozens of demons and not a few young students were waiting to welcome the taiyukai back home.

 **It was late** into the night when Inuyasha pulled Kagome into his arms, cradling her as he lifted her from her spot beside Rin in Sesshomaru's bed. He winked at his brother as he carried his sleeping girl back to their own room. Sesshomaru stepped inside and closed the door as silently as possible, hoping not to wake his sleeping mate, who needed the rest now that she was growing a pup inside her.

Rin shifted in the bed and blinked up at him as he approached. Her eyes widened a little bit and her face broke into a wide smile. Sesshomaru, tired as he was from the extensive planning meeting he'd just come from, smiled back. Rin pushed herself up, waving him off when he tried to help her.

"Hey," She said, reaching her hands to tug on the collar of the shirt he'd put on earlier.

Obligingly, he unbuttoned and doffed his shirt and pants, but he stopped her from pulling him into bed.

"I want to see," He said, and gently lifted her T-shirt off of her body. Underneath she was wearing a soft blue bra, and her pregnant belly swelled underneath ample breasts. "Rin," Sesshomaru breathed, "You are utterly breathtaking."

Rin smiled in the dark, and moved back to make room for Sesshomaru in the bed. He lay down facing her, touching her face wonderingly.

"Inuyasha told me how it was for you when I was gone," He said softly. Rin's face fell a little bit.

"I'm sorry," She said. "I should have believed in you."

"No," Sesshomaru said quickly, "I know you believed in me. That was what kept me alive. I'm just sorry that you ever had a reason to doubt I would return."

"I love you," Rin said. "I was scared. I don't ever want to feel that way again."

"I'm never leaving you again, and when the pup is born I will protect the both of you with my life." Sesshomaru promised, leaning in to capture her mouth in a kiss. Tasting her mouth, being enveloped in her new scent...it was all so intoxicating that Sesshomaru wanted it to last forever. The kiss grew more and more heated, and Rin's scent took on the dusky quality of arousal. Concerned, he pulled back slightly.

"Rin, I know you must be tired." He said, "We can just go to sleep."

"Like hell," She growled. "Do you know what happens to some women when they get pregnant?"

Sesshomaru was nonplussed. After all, he'd never pupped anyone before, much less a human, and although he knew the basics he was lost among the finer details of pregnancy and birth.

"What?" He said.

"They get…. _really_ interested in sex," Rin replied, her breath whispering along his cheek as she nibbled on his earlobe. "And I am one of those women, apparently."

"You wish for me to take you?" Sesshomaru asked, totally surprised but delighted.

Rin did not respond verbally, but she did respond affirmatively.


	39. Chapter 39

**Apple Picking**

"Inuyasha-"

"Shut it, wench."

"It's just that you're-"

"Look I'm trying to do something romantical, alright?"

"You're poking me you moron!"

"Hold your fuckin' horses!" Inuyasha grappled with Kagome for a second before she broke free of his hold, where he'd been covering her eyes with a clawed hand. As soon as she was free she gasped, astonished.

"Inuyasha!" She cried in delight. "Apple picking!"

All around her grew huge swathes of gnarled apple trees, heavy with ripe fruit. Orderly lines stretched to the horizon and the ground underfoot was knobbly with apples already fallen. The autumn sun washed everything in pale golden light against a deep blue sky. Kagome turned to smile at her mate through teary eyes. He grinned back at her.

"You always said you wanted to go." He said, shrugging.

"I never thought...I can't believe you remembered that!" She said. "I LOVE apple

Picking!"

"I know." Inuyasha said, tucking his hands into the sleeves of his old red haori.

"Inuyasha…." She said, but her heart was too full to say thank you. She threw her arms around him instead. He held her, burying his nose in her hair. "I love you," She said, still teary. She backed up enough to look at him. He wiped a tear from her cheek gently. "This is going to work, isn't it?" She continued, looking up at him with big eyes. "You, and me, and Kazuto? Sess and everybody else? We'll be okay, won't we?"

"I don't know," Inuyasha said seriously, "But I promise to always be there."

Kagome nodded, and kissed him. He slid her shirt to the side to kiss the fresh mating mark on her shoulder. She shivered with delight.

"Watch it now!" A voice called from the hill behind them. Kagome extricated herself from Inuyasha's hold to see Rin and Sesshomaru cresting the hill, carrying their tiny daughter Chiyo. Kazuto trotted along behind them, lugging a backpack.

Rin reached out to Kagome for a one armed hug, then swatted Sesshomaru away as he hovered nervously.

"I'm fine Sess! I've got her. Go help Kazuto with the lunch," She said, laughing at the look on her mate's face. Kagome laughed gleefully.

"I say the boys get the food set up and the girls will have a walk and get some apples," Rin said, taking Kagome's hand and balancing her cooing baby girl on her hip.

"Let me see that precious girl!" Kagome said as the two women turned to stroll down a lane. Rin handed Chiyo over to her friend.

"God, Rin, she's so gorgeous!" Kagome trilled. "And she's growing so fast!"

It was true. In the year since she'd been born, Chiyo had maintained a human rate of growth, although her demonic heritage was evident in her golden eyes and delicate, fuzzy ears which perked just above her soft silver hair.

"Yes, she is. It worried Sesshomaru. He's seen enough hanyou growing up to know that it's normal for them to progress through childhood at the same rate as a human, but he's paranoid."

"Well, he's in love, isn't he?" Kagome smiled, beaming when Chiyo wrapped her little

arms around her neck and rested her head on her shoulder.

"Totally. He's completely smitten with her," Rin agreed. "From the day she was born….it's like you wouldn't know he had ever even _seen_ a baby, you know?"

Kagome laughed.

"I wonder what Inuyasha would be like if we had kids." She said.

"What, he hasn't been trying to knock you up this whole time?" Rin said, elbowing Kagome a little suggestively.

"Oh, he tries!" Kagome said, "But I told him I want to wait. We have a long time, perhaps not as long as you and Sess have, but a while. I don't want Kazuto to feel like we've forgotten him."

"I don't think he'll feel like that. You two have given him a good home. He loves you." Rin

said sympathetically. Kagome only shrugged.

Rin plucked a few red apples from a nearby tree, dropping into the canvas bag on her shoulder. For a few moments the women just enjoyed the silence and the beauty.

"I'm going to miss you," Kagome murmured into Chiyo's silver hair. Rin straighted and turn to her friend, giving her a resigned look.

"I'm going to miss you too," She said, smiling. "I wish there were another way."

Kagome sighed. They'd been over it too many times to count, but both Inuyasha and Sesshomaru were adamant. Staying at the school was foolish when it was likely that Naraku was waiting somewhere, regaining strength with the help of the jewel. They had to separate. The orphaned students had already been adopted or placed with demon families. Many of the teachers had taken their students with them; even Shippo had left with a gaggle of giggling girls in his care. Kagome and Inuyasha had taken Kazuto in, and now they, Rin, Sesshomaru, and baby Chiyo were the only ones left living in the dormitory.

Sesshomaru had planned the network effectively. He was in contact with every demon in charge of students at the school. Although they were vacating the building, the school was still very much connected. The taiyoukai had worked for over a year to find safe places for his people to go, places where they would have the protection of other demons, or monks and priestesses sympathetic to their cause. He had arranged a home for himself and his small family in a secret location where he could easily communicate with the others.

Inuyasha, Kagome, and Kazuto were not going underground, not yet. Their plan was to travel to Japan to fetch Kagome's family and research the shikon jewel. Sesshomaru would have done it himself, but his instincts to stay near his mate and young daughter were too strong to resist, and Kagome had desperately wanted to be with her family anyway. Kazuto had been born in Japan but never seen it, and was also eager to go somewhere with his new adoptive parents.

"All of these carefully laid plans," Kagome said anxiously, "keep everyone safe, but they also keep us apart."

"Not forever," Rin said soothingly. "Sesshomaru is just scared for Chiyo. He wants to bury us in a hole in the ground until Chiyo's grown, that's all-that was a joke!" She said quickly at the horrified look on Kagome's face.

"But don't you want Chiyo and Kazuto t grow up together?" Kagome asked.

"They will, I believe it." Rin assured her. "We won't be apart for long. Kagome, Sesshomaru is everything to me, but in a lot of ways, well, _you're_ my soul mate. My best friend."

Kagome started crying again. Chiyo purred a little bit like a kitten and cuddled into her neck, and Rin leaned forward to hug Kagome.

"We'll figure out what to do about the jewel," Kagome said, her voice muffled in Rin's shoulder. "And then we'll come home. We'll be together again."

 **Kazuto could barely** contain his excitement as he leaned over Kagome to get a view of the city out of the airplane window.

"Tokyo," He said, marveling at the buildings and parks.

Kagome, who'd been sick nearly the whole flight, merely groaned.

"I need a bed, _now."_ She said miserably. "That was like twenty hours of absolute hell. God I hope that whatever's making me sick is out of my system now."

Kazuto and Inuyasha exchanged nervous glances. Kazuto lifted his brows as if to ask, _tell her now?_ But Inuyasha just grimaced and shook his head. _Nope. Tell her later._

"I'm sure you'll feel better soon, hon." He said encouragingly, if not a little guiltily.

The young hanyou leaned back into his seat and smoothed his hair nervously over his one remaining ear. Inuyasha caught the gesture.

"You look fine, kid." He said. "No one is going to notice with your hair all spiky like that."

Kazuto just nodded and looked back out the window at his new home. Kagome-mom-had told him that he had more family here. A grandmother, an uncle, a great-grandfather. Kazuto felt a little bit like this must be a bit much to have so many family members. What had he done to deserve this? He looked down at his sharp claws. When he was old enough Inuyasha would show him how to maintain a concealment spell. He could already hold a spell for a few minutes, but it took more power to hold for much longer. He could have filed his nails down, he supposed, like he used to do. But he had promised himself that he would always be ready for a fight, and his claws were his greatest weapon.

A flash of green and magenta whipped by the window of the airplane, so quickly that Kazuto thought he had missed it. But when a feather blew by, he saw the set line of Inuyasha's mouth and knew it wasn't just him. Someone was out there.

"Kagura." Kagome said. Apparently she'd noticed it too. Inuyasha only nodded. "Do you think she'll try to hurt us?" Kagome asked.

"Over my dead body," Inuyasha growled. "But I don't think she will try. She left Naraku, remember?"

"Just the same," Kagome said in a tired voice. "I wish she wasn't here. I'm not going to be easy, knowing she's out there."

Kazuto wasn't sure who Kagura was or why they were so worried about her, but he knew exactly what to do. He held up a sharp clawed hand.

"Don't worry Mis..Mom." He said. "I promise I'll protect both of you."

Kagome smiled at him. "Kazuto, I believe you will."

There was another companionable silence. The captain made a muffled announcement. Then Kagome turned her head to the side, brows furrowed.

"Wait, you mean 'both of you' as in me and Inuyasha, right?" She said, a little suspiciously.

Kazuto, who had little experience in lying, said nothing, but looked at Inuyasha nervously. Kagome's face turned red.

" _Inuyasha?!"_

The plane had landed before they managed to calm her down.

By the time they reached the shrine where Kagome's mother waited for them, she was crying with joy, hugging the older woman and sobbing.

"Wow," Kazuto said, shell-shocked, as he and Inuyasha stood back slightly from the reunion.

"Tell me about it," Inuyasha agreed. "Still on board to stay with us?"

Kazuto thought about it.

"Yes." He said solemnly.

Inuyasha smiled and ruffled his hair.

"Good. Now let's go meet our new family."

 **Author's Note:** If you liked _Apple Picking_ please head over to check out the sequel, _Claws,_ starring a grownup Kazuto and Chiyo. Naraku, now in possession of the jewel, makes one last effort to draw Sesshomaru out: through his daughter. Chapters updated weekly. Much more exciting than the summary. I'm terrible at summaries.


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